God's Wonderful Blessing on a NEET
by WriteRightRite
Summary: Taken to another world, given a second chance at becoming more, Kazuma reaches for the title of hero with a new resolve. A slightly more romance/serious focus for Konosuba. Slightly OOC since the humor will be toned down a bit. I'm not quite sure who Kazuma will romance though. One girl? Two girls? A Harem? The entire female populace of Axel? Yeah something like that.
1. A Second Chance

**Well hello there...**

 _ **Stopping after just two chapters? what's that all about?!**_

 _ **Yeah, well I wanted to keep going but like I said the last time this was updated I was dealing with things. By the time I got settled, I was pretty burnt out and just decided a short break would be better. Nicer, at the very least.**_

 _ **... And then I forgot I was writing this all together.**_

 _ **And then when I did remember, quite a while since then I know, I decided to just take everything and do it piece by piece. Cause I really wasn't liking the way what I already had written out was going. What I mean by that is, i'm just going to do rather short chapters. As much as I wanted to do an entire episode per chapter, I found it difficult to make smooth transitions between scenes and I don't really like doing scene breaks or the horizontal lines. I'll try to lengthen the chapters as the story goes on though.**_

 _ **Anyway, this is(was?) my first fic ever so please leave a review.**_

* * *

"So that's what happened," Kazuma closed his eyes. Devastated at the news, but accepting the outcome, he pressed on with another question. "Besides that, what about her?", he looked up with worry, "the girl I pushed out of harm's way?"

"She's safe", the goddess replied.

"Thank goodness", He slumped back into the seat with a sigh of relief, "At least I didn't die for nothing".

The goddess tilted her head and held back a smile, "Actually, she would've been fine even if you didn't push her out of the way"

Kazuma's eyes widened, "What?"

She opened the book beside her and scanned the notes before turning back to him, "The tractor stopped before it hit her".

His heart skipped a beat, not that it would've done anything to him considering his situation, and the memory flooded back into his mind. His body tensed as confusion and fear struck him, "wait a minute"

"What is it?"

"Tractor?"

"Yes, it was a tractor" The lady in blue started to shift around in her seat, doing her best to keep a straight face.

"Then what happened? Did the tractor hit me instead?"

"Nope, you died of shock. You mistakenly thought a truck ran over you"

"I died from shock?" Kazuma flinched and gripped the arm rests, unsure of whether he should be outraged or embarrassed at such a pathetic end.

The goddess let out a small giggle, but the sight of his face was the last straw. She lost control, filling the silent void with her laughter. Embarrassment first came to Kazuma as he rested uncomfortably back into the seat, trying to organize and come to terms with his apparently faulty memory. The streak of red came back to haunt him once more as he shoved the girl who was not in any danger at all out of the way.

"I've been doing this for a long time, and i've met a lot of people, but you're the first to die in such a dumb way", she said falling over in her seat.

 _'What's her deal? I just died and she's making fun of me?',_ Kazuma felt the lost rage returning to wash away the embarrassment.

"You were so scared you even wet yourself!", she struggled to stay upright. It had been a long time since someone as interesting as him had come along. Sitting in a chair talking to people and trying to console them about their deaths became rather repetitive, or at least when you do it for an eternity.

He readied a defense for himself when she cut him off.

"You were taken to a nearby hospital where the doctors laughed at you as you had a heart attack", she said as she caught herself on the arm rest, pulling herself back up. Embarrassment overwhelmed his building fury instantly.

"Stop, I don't want to hear it!", he covered his ears as the goddess approached.

She leaned in and whispered, "Your family rushed to the hospital and now they're laughing at the cause of your death too"

"No! No! Stop!" He defiantly flailed around.

Her laughter faded away and she let out a final giggle, "Well then"

"huh?", Kazuma froze, surprised by her sudden change in demeanor.

"I've vented enough stress", she said with a flick of her hand.

 _'Damn her'_ , Kazuma glared as she steadied herself, now calm and composed. He sat up as focused as before. He had to find out what would be happening to himself after all, regardless of the cause of his death.

"My name is Aqua, I guide humans who die young in the afterlife. So, you have two choices. You can either start fresh with a new life or you can go to heaven and carry on like an old man", She counted his options with her fingers in front of him. She suddenly leaned in again, turning her head side to side as if expecting someone else to be in the vast void around them, "to tell you the truth, heaven isn't the dreamy place you humans think it is"

"What?", He asked rhetorically, _'A goddess talking bad about heaven?'_

"Not only is there no TV, there are no manga or games. You don't even have a physical body so you can't do anything sexual either", she made sure her words weighed on him properly as she set up the reveal, "There's nothing to do there but bask in the sun for all eternity"

"W-what?" Kazuma repeated with a stutter as he realized just how close she was to him, her words barely registering in his mind.

She leaned in closer, their faces only inches apart, "Yeah, you don't want to go to a boring place like heaven, do you?"

He began to blush slightly. Uncomfortable with the close contact he mumbled out a reply, "N-no, not really".

He looked away from her, trying to hide the red in his face

"But starting over again isn't very fun either, is it?", and even closer she went, her nose practically on his cheek. His face strained to stay calm with his heartbeat reaching speeds that threatened to break his ribcage from the inside.

At last she finally pulled away and pointed at him, "You like games don't you?"

"Huh?", before he could properly answer, she began a speech. A golden light enveloped her from the void above.

"That world, where everyone had enjoyed peace and the livelihoods they worked hard for, is being threatened by the Devil King's army! The hard work citizens have done are being trampled and destroyed by those monsters, everyone now lives in fear of the devil king's pillaging and killing! killing... killing" She spread her arms wide as the light seemed to hit a climax, her eyes sparkled as she echoed her own words for effect. "With a place like that, people refuse to be reborn there so the population is declining", she added at the end, as if it was barely necessary.

"I see..." Kazuma stared at her, unsure how to reply.

"So we said, 'hey, why not send people from other worlds with their bodies and memories still intact?'"

"But what's the point of sending me there if i'm just going to get killed again?"

"That's why I'll do you a _big_ favor", she gave him a thumbs up, "I'm granting you the right to bring one item with you of your choosing. It could be a powerful weapon or an amazing talent. How does that sound? You'll be able to have a fresh start with all your memories, to top it off, you can bring one item of your choosing. And the people of the parallel world will earn someone battle ready to help them! Not a bad deal, eh?" She said triumphantly.

The deal did sound rather nice to him. In his old life, he hadn't been able to amount to much with no real goal for the future. As such the only milestone he hit was becoming a disappointment, not only to society but to his own parents as well. This could be his chance to start anew and actually make something of himself. He imagined himself being something more. As a hero triumphantly standing above a dark castle with the devil king's body beneath him, with a legion of heroes and civilians alike cheering his name.

And he liked the idea.

But another concern came to mind, "Um, can i ask one more thing? Will i be able to speak their language in this new world?"

"that won't be an issue", she held up a book and handed it to him, again already ready to answer his question. It was full of small images and explanations about the reincarnating process. He scanned through the pictures, not bothering to actually read the words as she continued. "With the kind support of us gods, we'll overload your brain so you'll be able to learn it instantly" she then covered up a warning that seemed rather important, quickly adding, "On the downside, you have a small chance of going 'poof' if you're unlucky though. So all that's left is for you to pick a powerful weapon or amazing talent"

Kazuma blinked once, then twice. He looked at her with a grimace and she slowly pulled the book away, "I just heard you say something very important about my life... What do you mean 'poof'?"

"i never said that," she said with a disarming smile.

"Yes you did"

"Now, decide!", she waved aside his concerns as sheets began to fall in front of him, "i'll grant you a power that is second to none!"

He conceded defeat, knowing he wouldn't want to start life over again and wouldn't want to be stuck in heaven if it was as boring as she said. He sighed and grabbed the papers from the floor. After organizing them, he looked through each sheet carefully and quickly realized that they were very unbalanced or next to useless. Kazuma shook his head and cleared the doubt away.

' _All of these are broken, but if magic exists in this world there's no way I can pass that up!'_ Kazuma grabbed a few pages off the floor that grabbed his attention the most and set them aside.

After sometime had passed, Aqua reappeared and lazily sat back in her chair with a bag of junk food, "hey, hurry it up, will you? No matter what you pick, it's all the same. No one will expect much from a shut-in game otaku like you anyway"

"I- I am no otaku!", Kazuma defended himself, "And i died _outside_ of my house so i'm not a shut in either!" He nodded approvingly of his reasoning.

Aqua licked the seasoning of the chips off her fingers, "I don't care, just hurry it up", She twirled her hair with her other hand as she watched the brown haired otaku shuffle through all the pages once again, "I've still got more deceased humans to guide, you know"

"If you want me to hurry up then why don't you help me decide here?" He asked with his temper nearing its limit, holding papers up into the air.

"It's not my place to decide for you" She leaned back and rested her head on a hand, "You're a NEET aren't you? Don't you already have delusions of the kind of powers you want?"

"Don't call me a shut-in!" Though she didn't say shut-in, the response came automatically.

"Yes, sure, come on already"

 _"Damn her! Getting all cocky just because she's a little bit cute!'_ He shuffled through the papers once more. A devious grin then came to him.

"Hey, I just thought of something, " he grabbed her attention and set the papers aside.

"Hm?" The goddess lazily grabbed another potato chip.

"You said I could take anything with me right?" He stood up, stepping back from the papers and keeping his eyes on the floor.

"Yes, so hurry it up" she replied in between bites.

"I realize that, like you said, I would be as useless as these abilities so it might be better to take someone who's actually powerful with me, right?"

"Probably," she said, not completely listening to him.

Kazuma raised his hand, pointing at her. "Okay, then you come with me," He said as the grin fully developed into a malicious smile.

Aqua finished the potato chip and she processed what he said. She raised a brow and casually replied "Eh? All those powers to choose from and you want me to come with you?"

"That's right, as a goddess you can make my life as easy as possible in the new world!" He clenched his fists, satisfied with his plan.

"Well, that's too bad. You can't take a goddess with you" She replied smugly.

"Ah, but you said I could take _anything_ with me, right?"

"Sure, but taking gods and goddesses isn't-" She stopped as a light flickered into existence.

A portal opened beside them and an angel descended into the room, taking their attention away from each other, "We have heard your request, I shall take on your job from here on out, Aqua"

"huh?", Aqua dropped the chip in her hand and looked between her subordinate and the man standing across from her.

"Satou Kazuma's request fits the parameters and has been accepted", the newcomer explained herself.

A magic circle formed beneath the both of them. Aqua's sanity rapidly began to collapse from panic. "Hey- wait a second, what do you mean? You're kidding right? No! No, come on! This isn't right, taking a goddess with you is against the rules!", she stepped to the edge of the portal, fear in her voice as her fingers pressed against her container. "It has to be!", she began to scream on the verge of tears, slamming her fist against the magic walls, "It has to be illegal! wait! wait!"

"please have a safe trip, Aqua," the angel replied nonchalantly, "If you can beat the devil king, I will send someone to pick you up"

"I may have the ability to heal since i'm a goddess, but I can't fight at all! There's no way I can beat the devil king!", she tried to bargain her way out as the portal pulled them higher, "Hey wait!" Her voice cut off as she realized her soon to be companion was dead quiet. She turned to look at him, "You! You say something here!"

"eh? me? Why should I? You're the one who treated me like an idiot!" He crossed his arms, "how does it feel now? You're the one _thing_ i'll be bringing along"

"No! I'm sorry, please!"

Kazuma continued to laugh, entertained from the display of a goddess throwing a tantrum.

The angel, now below them, suddenly spread her wings and gave him a prayer, "Brave and noble hero, I pray that above all the others, you will be the one to defeat the devil king! If you do, we shall grant you any wish you desire as a gift from the gods!"

Kazuma turned to the angel, sanity returning to him, "Whoa, really?"

"That was supposed to be _my_ line!" Aqua wailed.

The angel ignored her, "Now, go forth on your journey and return safely!"

The magic portal opened above them and they were sucked out into the beyond.

Kazuma held his breath as he entered into the pitch blackness for a single moment.

He wasn't exactly sure what he was expecting traveling through magic portals, but he had expected more. Something, anything. Maybe a tingly sensation or a nauseous reaction. Though he was actually glad that wasn't the case, he still expected _something_ at the end of it. It wasn't exactly disappointing, he did travel through a magic portal after all, but it just felt so lackluster. They were floating, and levitating, and a great swirl started to pull them in from above with lights flashing beneath them.

And then it was over.

Their floating just stopped.

Kazuma sighed as he felt the ground settle beneath him. He blinked to let his eyes adjust to the light and began to take in the sights around him. It took him a moment to realize where they went. A new thought suddenly fueled his excitement again. The medieval style buildings, the rags and robes people wore, and the scent of clean outside air hit him all at once. But most of all, it was the weapons strapped to people's backs that grabbed his attention. The things that differentiated them from the common townsfolk. Kazuma enviously stared at all the people dressed in fancy armor and gear. A small party was talking in the distance, crossing over a bridge. Beside them, a wagon was pulled along by a horse. His reality changed forever, for better or for worse.

* * *

 **So there's that out of the way.**

 **I should be able to get the next part up by tomorrow and the updates will vary after that.**

 **And I just want to give a heads up that yeah, the characters are going to be a little OOC. Less wacky antics, more drama between characters and all that. Terribly presented last time, I know, but I'll work on it.**

 **I'll ask a question again here though, since I'm basically starting over, should this go with Kazuma having a harem? If so then which girls? If not then which girl should he romance? Maybe a three way? Anyway, thanks for reading, please leave a review.**


	2. Character Creation

Kazuma took a step forward. He gasped in awe, "It- It's a fantasy world! It's really a fantasy world!"

He had completely forgotten about Aqua, who was sulking next to him at a loss for words.

"That means I'll really be able to go on adventures! Goodbye shut in life, hello new world!" He shouted, drawing the weary attention of a few local residents.

Aqua stood up, finally gathering enough mental strength to pull herself together. She hugged herself, gripping her arms in fear. She had been dragged away from her comfy goddess lifestyle into a world where she had nothing. Her attention snapped to Kazuma as he shouted, letting out pitiful sobs and groans in response.

The man in question looked at her, "Oi, stop that. What'll I do if everyone thinks i'm friends with a crazy woman?"

She gripped her head, her cries of anguish increasing in volume.

"More importantly, isn't there something you should be giving me here? Look at me, i'm in a track suit. Here I am in a _fantasy world_ , in a _track suit_. Shouldn't I get some armor or a weapon at least?"

Aqua screamed as she lashed out at him, finally snapping. She wrapped her hands around his throat and shook him violently. She seemed to be attempting to yell at him, but it was incoherent through the sobbing and screams of despair.

"Ow! Stop it, I get it already," Kazuma grabbed her wrists, attempting to loosen her grp, "I'm sorry ok! If you hate this place so much, you can go home. I'll work this out on my own", Kazuma said as he pushed her away.

"What are you _talking about_? I'm in trouble because I _can't_ go home!", Aqua stepped back and cried, "What am I supposed to do, huh? What do I do from now on?"

Kazuma felt guilty, more from the pitiful sight than anything else, "Ok, calm down goddess, I'm sorry ok? I didn't think asking to take you with me would actually work. I was just a bit wound up and frustrated. I was just spouting words to spite you. You really need to learn to treat the dead better."

Her crying slowed and she wiped her eyes. "What am I supposed to do here?" She asked weakly, crossing her arms again.

Kazuma sighed and looked around, a few people were staring but kept going about their business. "We'll figure something out. But you really need to get yourself together and stop annoying me ok?"

She nodded, "I'll try"

Kazuma scanned their surroundings once more before deciding, "Alright, let's go then, goddess"

"what? To where?" She asked.

"Times like these call for an adventurer's guild or tavern, someplace where all the heroes gather for information."

"I guess being an otaku does have its benefits," she took another jab at him masked as a compliment.

He turned away from her and walked down the road.

"Hey by the way, you can call me 'goddess' if you like, but you should call me 'Aqua' so we don't cause a commotion"

"OK, I get that," Kazuma kept his focus on the buildings around them. Any of the large structures in the distance could easily be a guildhall, "By the way, if you're a goddess, then shouldn't you know where a guild is?"

"Exactly, I'm a goddess, there's no way I'd know of a lowly place like that", Aqua said, holding her head high.

Kazuma tilted his head, "You really shouldn't insult the people we're going to need help from. Besides, haven't you done the 'sending other people to this world' thing before?"

"I gave them their gifts and then sent them off, it's not like I watch over them" she explained.

"Really? Isn't it your job to take care of them though?" Kazuma asked.

"I'm not the only one who greets people in the afterlife," she shook her head, "and it would be unfair to pick favorites as a goddess"

"Right, I guess that would be hard," he agreed.

"Do you know where we are headed though?"

"Oh, well I thought we should just follow the groups of adventurers around. One of them will be heading back to the guild right?"

Aqua went silent, staring at Kazuma.

"What is it?" He glanced behind him, noticing her look.

"Why not just ask someone?" Aqua suggested.

"huh?" Kazuma mentally smacked himself, too dumbfounded to reply. She smiled as he walked towards a rough looking adventurer eyeing a weapon in a market stall.

"Excuse me" Kazuma called out to him.

"Hm?" The large adventurer faced him. The ruffian studied him and Aqua. Pointing to Kazuma he said, "Haven't seen the two of you around here before. What's up with the clothes?"

Kazuma took a deep breath. He crossed his arms and with, what was supposed to be, a smug grin he replied, "Well, we've actually come along way and just got into town you see. I'd like to become an adventurer and fight the devil king's army too"

The ruffian returned the grin, "Is that so, you reckless punk? Then welcome to the gates of hell!" He slapped Kazuma on the back, who coughed in agony, "If you're looking to apply to be an adventurer, the guild is that way".

Kazuma followed his direction further down the street, between the market stalls towards a large building ahead of them. Kazuma gave his thanks and Aqua followed after him. Kazuma kept looking around them however, watching the people and noting any weapons of interest in the stalls.

"What do you keep looking around for? We already know where the guild is" She prodded.

"Just watching how people interact with each other. I figure we shouldn't do anything to offend them so we should learn a thing or two about how they act. The best place to do that would be here, during exchanges right?"

"Ooh," she seemed to be in awe, "You suddenly seem so reliable"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She replied, "Well, aren't you a shut-in otaku? How can you think like this when you should be panicking with me or something?"

He rubbed the back of his head, choosing to ignore the former of the questions, "I don't know"

She waited for him to continue.

"Ordinarily I would be panicking in situations like this. I'm not exactly emotionally stable myself. I panic easily and I have a short temper. You know, like shoving that girl out of the way of the tractor and then dying from shock or spiting you and dragging you here with me" He put a hand to his chin.

"Then something about this world?" Aqua guessed, "Because it's like a video game or something?"

"Maybe," he shrugged as they reached the end of the street. He looked up at the large structure in front of them, a tall tower stood off in the distance behind it. He looked at Aqua, who seemed to be taking it in as well, then looked at the banner above the door. Green and yellow.

"This seems like the place," Kazuma stepped forward, noticing the noise escaping from inside.

"Eh really? This seems so scary though" Aqua stepped behind him.

"We don't have much of a choice," He turned around.

"What is it?"

"Listen, Aqua"

"ok," she nodded.

"Today we're going to register with the guild and then get a place to stay for the night. Ok? That's all we have to do today"

"Right. I dont know much about video games, but i guess it's pretty similar after all, huh?"

"Exactly, come on" He lead her through the doors. A passing maid gave them a quick greeting.

"Welcome! If you're here to eat please find a table and someone will come serve you shortly. If you're here to apply as an adventurer, the reception desk is over there" She gestured toward one end of the hall with her head and walked to the other side to serve the mugs she was carrying.

"Thank you," Kazuma replied and made his way to the receptionist.

"Hello, how can I help you?" She smiled.

"Uh," Kazuma smiled back, trying to keep his eyes on hers. A difficult task with the forbidden valley calling him from below, "We'd like to become adventurers" He gestured to Aqua and himself.

"Great! Then first, you'll have to pay the registration fee"

"Right of course," He smiled and took a step away from the counter. He leaned towards Aqua and whispered, "Do you have any money?"

Shs shook her head, "You dragged me here without any warning, of course not"

Kazuma gave a sheepish grin to the receptionist and awkwardly excused themselves. They made their way to a table far off from the other adventurers. Luckily for them, it seemed that the rush hour was ending, with most of the patrons filing out of the guild. Minutes of silence passed and a maid interrupted their thoughts.

"Are you ready to order?"

"We're still thinking about it, sorry" Kazuma replied with his head against the table.

"That's ok, take your time!" She exclaimed cheerfully and left them alone.

With a sigh, he sat up and said, "Hey, what do we do now? We've been stopped before we've even began. Usually at the start we're supposed to get basic equipment or gold to cover the costs of them."

Aqua returned the downcast look, "I don't know. There aren't any games where you start off with absolutely nothing?"

"In games like those, you're usually strong enough to beat the starting monsters by yourself. The equipment you get is there to help you as you face higher level monsters"

Aqua held up her head with a hand, "So now what?"

"You don't have any smiting powers or anything?" Kazuma asked, hoping for anything.

"I have a few weak self defense abilities I guess, but i'm more of a healing goddess. I don't think i'd be able to hurt anything more than a human or smaller animal"

"Right then, so we've got nothing to do"

"Could we just beg for money on the streets?" Aqua looked out the window, watching people pass by.

He shook his head, "I doubt we'd be able to make anything that way. We just got into town and the people seem to know each other fairly well here"

They sat in silence again.

"Are you ready to order?" The maid returned with the same cheerful smile.

"Err, no i'm still thinking about it" Kazuma looked down at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact.

"Take your time. The rush hour is over so call someone when you're ready" She replied and wandered off again.

Kazuma waited until she was out of earshot, "Can't you ask one of your followers for help or something?"

"Do you really think they'd believe someone declaring themselves to be a goddess and begging or demanding money?" She closed her eyes, imagining the situation. Or worse yet, if she were to accidentally ask a priest of a different sect.

"When you put it like that..." Kazuma trailed off and sighed.

"Right over here," The maid from earlier returned and the two looked up.

"There you two are!" The ruffian greeted them with a smile. "Thank you," He told the maid before standing in front of Kazuma and Aqua.

"Eh? Hello" Kazuma started as the maid left.

"Trouble with the registration fee?" He grinned when the two wouldn't meet his eyes. He set coins down on the table and slid it to Kazuma, "I had a feeling like you would, neither of you have any equipment after all."

"Thank you, but..." Kazuma was at a loss for words, watching the coins as if they would jump away at any moment.

"But why help you?" The ruffian gave them a thumbs up, "I don't know"

They both stared at him, unbelieving at the turn of events.

The ruffian laughed, "I just have a good feeling about you two. Something tells me you're going to do great things here. So i'm looking forward to your work in the future"

Kazuma looked at the coins again, then back to the large adventurer.

The ruffian shook his head, "No catch, no fees, nothing of the sort. Look, take these coins back to Luna over there and get yourselves signed up. I'll tell you of a place you can spend tonight afterwards for free. Tomorrow, you can head into town and find some basic labor jobs to get yourselves started" He stood up and waved behind him as he left to find a table for himself, leaving them mute between themselves.

Finally Kazuma spoke up, "So, do we take the coins?"

Aqua shrugged and peeked back to the ruffian, who gave them a thumbs up and a smile. She looked to Kazuma, and then to the coins, "You said it yourself earlier, we don't have many choices in what we can or can't do". Yet she stared at Kazuma, waiting for him to take action.

Kazuma nodded and collected the coins into his hand. He stood up and felt the weight in his hands, bouncing them around. "Are you coming?" he asked Aqua.

She slid out of the bench and followed him back to the receptionist counter, where Luna, as they learned her name, was wiping off the counter. She set the rags aside and smiled at them.

"We brought the coins for the registration fee," Kazuma forced himself to make eye contact.

She simply nodded, taking the coins out of his hand, and disappeared behind a door. She came back with two cards and handed one to each of them.

"Well, allow me to explain. Adventurers all have an occupation, this is your registration card. It keeps track of how many monsters you've slain and your experience. As your level rises, you'll earn points that you can use for skills, so please work hard to raise your level. Now will you please hold your hand over this crystal?"

"Like this?", Kazuma hovered his hand over the blue ball and it began to spin and glow, "Whoa", he said in awe. The crystal spun and whirred with ticks as it filled out the information on his card.

"With this, you'll learn about your current status so please choose your occupation based on your stats", she continued.

 _"Here it comes, now my tremendous talent and abilities will be revealed and there'll be an uproar about the hero who will slay the Devil King in the guild!',_ Kazuma smiled, excited for his grand protagonist start. He eyed the blue crystal impatiently as it finished filling out his card.

"Ok, let's see", the blonde picked up the card and looked through his numbers, "Satou Kazuma is it? Average across the board with the exception of high intelligence and- oh wow! Your luck is extraordinarily high. Of course, while this is excellent for finding loot, merchants or traders are more likely to use this than adventurers as it's not exactly a combat related stat."

Kazuma sighed. "So much for a heroic start. Make my primary job 'adventurer' please", he said, downcast.

"Well, you can always change jobs when you level up", she tried to assure him, "Most heroes start off as a different class from the one they want!"

"You're right!", he hid his sadness behind an unnecessary amount of joy and pumped his hand into the air. He looked over his card while Aqua went up to check herself.

Scanning his card, disappointment filled his mind, _'I guess we'll really have our work cut out for us after all. Starting from the very bottom and work our way up to something worthwhile'_

"What!?", the receptionist yelled, interrupting his train of thought, "aside from your intelligence being just average, and your luck being the lowest possible level, all of your stats are drastically high!" She turned to Aqua.

The goddess smiled, "I see then". She faced Kazuma and teased, "I'm pretty amazing, don't you think?"

"Amazing is an understatement!", the maid held up her card, "The mage class which requires intelligence is out of the question, but other than that, you can be anything you want!" The remaining adventurers began to turn their attention to Aqua, "Crusader, sword master, arch priest or any advanced class right from the start!"

"I see, it's a shame there's no 'goddess' option, I guess I'll settle for 'Arch Priest'"

"Arch priest, the class that controls all recovery and support magic, while having enough strength to fight on the front line"

The cheers ran throughout the tavern for the surprising newcomer among them.

"Without further ado, welcome to our adventurers guild, Aqua!", she gave the goddess a grand welcome, setting Kazuma aside, "Our staff wil be looking forward to your future expeditions"

Aqua blushed as a circle of adventurers formed around her, cheering her on and giving her compliments.

"Starting as an arch mage is really impressive!"

"Wow, someone so amazing is with us!"

"You might actually be able to beat the devil king you crazy girl!" people yelled from the crowd.

 _'Nothing like this for me, huh?'_ , Kazuma watched from the sidelines.

"It's the adventurers life for us, starting today, Kazuma!" Aqua pointed to him, pulling him out of his thoughts.

He nodded, at least one thing was going there way, "Right"

"We've got a lot of work ahead of us so you can get me home"

He smiled at her, knowing he had a lot of expectations to live up to. Despite starting so low however, he felt ready for the challenge more than anything else.

 _"Well basically everything so far has been character creation. But now our adventure finally begins!'_ Kazuma assured himself. The crowd parted just enough for the two to make their way outside. The sun, though still high in the sky, was beginning to set. The ruffian gave them more directions to a farmer who cheaply rented extra stalls in his barn or stables to new adventurers. Their first night would be free, but they'd need to get jobs in the morning if they wanted to keep staying there.

* * *

 **And there's that.**

 **Thanks again for reading!**

 **So for Kazuma, I decided to set him off as his normal start because he'll have the freedom to grow more this way. Maybe he'll have a few fighting abilities of his own, but I'm thinking that he will still just find a way to use the girls' abilities to fight the bosses. Or maybe he'll have them weaken the boss and he'll give the finish blow. So, you know, Aqua doesn't destroy most of the town and things like that.**

 **And I know the beginning doesn't have that many changes to it, but there's only so much I can come up with for a start. I'll probably base a lot of it off the anime but i'll also try to come up with a few of my own quests. Quests for Kazuma to get better gear or lots of levels for better skills. But what should Kazuma change his class to as he levels up?**


	3. A Reason to Try

**Hello again.**

 **Thank you for the reviews and suggestions!**

* * *

"Kazuma," A soft voice called for him. It was faint and almost went unheard. Kazuma stirred in his sleep. He rolled over in his bed, away from the voice.

"Kazuma," the gentle voice called to him louder this time. He could hear it more clearly now. It was a sweet and alluring voice, a voice that immediately intoxicated his mind. He slipped out of his bed, stretching and yawning, and scanned his room. Nothing happened. He rubbed his eyes and stumbled out into the hallway. He entered the kitchen, pulling back the curtains to find that he was a bit late for breakfast. Pulling an all nighter had left him sleeping for most of the day it seemed. The sun was setting and the stars were already out. His parents would be home soon.

His stomach grumbled. "I should at least have a snack," He said to himself. He scavenged until he found suitable junk food to satiate him until dinner.

Kazuma returned to his room, powered on his computer, and set his headphones around his neck, throwing the wrapper into the trash can underneath his desk before readying himself for the rest of the night.

"Kazuma~" the voice called again, directly behind him this time. He spun in his chair rapidly. Behind him, he witnessed someone materialize before his eyes; A being of beauty and grace. His heart began to race and his eyes wandered over her. She wore deep blue high boots, extended by white thigh high socks. A short blue miniskirt rounded her hips with a transparent underskirt stopping short of her socks to expose her skin. The length of it made him instinctively question whether she was wearing anything underneath. Her blue vest clung to her loosely, but enough to show her figure. Her teal blue hair was made into a little loop at the top of her head and ran all the way down to her waist. Her detached sleeves hung around her arms as she walked. She approached him and he leaned away. As cute as she was, he wasn't someone to trust people based on their looks. She reached up, placing a hand under his chin, but something seemed familiar about her.

Something that didn't quite have him as attracted to her as he should've been.

She leaned in, bringing their faces close together, and called his name again.

Something was definitely wrong. This felt too familiar to be a dream. He cringed at her as she opened her mouth again.

She screamed his name, angrily this time, and he felt a violent jerk throw him out of his chair.

"Kazuma, get up you shut in NEET!" Aqua's voice finally woke him as he felt gravity deny him for a brief moment.

Kazuma found himself upside down and away from the hay stack, against the rough dirt in between stalls. His head hurt from landing against the ground, throbbing in pain as he remembered where he actually was. He rolled over and stood up in a rush, wiping the dirt off himself and grumbling something about dirtying his clothes.

"There are nicer ways to wake people up, you know" He frowned, checking himself and straightening his track suit.

"I called your name 6 times and poked your face repeatedly"

"Ah, so you did" He bent down to tie his shoes.

"Anyway, that was quite the face you were making Kazuma"

He stopped and raised a brow, lifting his head to meet her smug expression.

"Were you having a nice dream?"

"Not exactly," He said truthfully. Her smile told him she didn't believe him.

"Really? Are you sure you weren't having a dream about a certain someone? Maybe because you don't interact with her kind often?"

"Don't refer to girls as another 'kind'," He stretched his arms out and yawned, "Wait, did you mean girls or goddesses?"

"You admitted it!" She pointed at him and let out a shocked gasp, "I was just kidding, but you actually admitted it!"

His body stiffened and he turned away from her, cringing from his slip up and the coming humiliation. Aqua collapsed back down onto the hay stack, laughing herself senseless.

"It's not what you think it was," He tried to explain himself over her. He sighed, realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere, and looked around. Outside, the stars were just fading away as sunrays peeked over the city's walls. The opposite from his dream.

"You two sure are rowdy this early in the morning, huh? Ah the power of youth and love," Another adventurer getting ready for the day stood beside Kazuma, patting him on the head.

"We aren't like that," Kazuma replied and slid away from the man's grasp.

"Eh? Is that so? You two are already acting like newlyweds, though"

"Really, that's the last thing on our minds right now," Kazuma frowned at the other occupants and their grins as they left the stables.

"Sure, sure. That's what they all say in the beginning kid, but sooner or later..." The man said with a wink, letting Kazuma's imagination finish the sentence.

"Hey, you say something here," Kazuma looked to Aqua, who seemed to be laughing harder after hearing outsider input.

The other adventurer chuckled again, "You're off to do construction on the wall too, right? Don't fall too far behind or they'll find somebody to replace you quick if you're late." He waved goodbye and left the two as the last ones in the stables.

Kazuma waved back before returning to Aqua, "Thank you. Come on Aqua, you heard him. We need to get going."

Aqua took deep breaths, rolling onto her back as her laughter slowed, "Ok, I'm done now."

"how did you manage to get up so early anyway?"

"Hm, because i'm a goddess of course," she smiled, interrupting him before he could say that it didn't explain anything, "in reality it's just like an internal clock or something. I'm not sure." She shrugged and helped herself up, wiping straw and dirt off her skirt.

"You still look pretty tired though," He noticed the bags under her eyes as she stood beside him, her hair a mess compared to their first meeting yesterday.

"I'm lacking some much needed beauty sleep so we can get some work done," she crossed her arms with a frown, "Or would you prefer we sleep in and get kicked out by tonight?"

"Sorry, shouldn't have said anything about a goddesses' beauty," He amused himself for the first time that morning and led their way out of the stables. They walked down the road into town.

"What about you anyway? You don't look like you're that tired"

Kazuma grinned, "Gamer's tenacity!"

"You mean a shut-in's tenacity?"

Kazuma ignored her statement to protect his pride, "Pulling late nights and waking up early is natural for me, so I can force my way through the day pretty easily now"

"So what was the dream about, really?" Aqua asked.

"Would you believe me if I told you?"

"Probably, I don't exactly take you as the kind of guy to hide your perversion," She teased, "you are a shut-in otaku after all"

"tsch," Kazuma scowled, knowing he couldn't honestly deny it, "I'm a normal healthy human male, damn it! There's nothing wrong with me"

She laughed again and he simply sighed. He recalled his dream to her, leaving out his thoughts about her sudden appearance of course, and she nodded.

"It seems like I was there to take you away. Sounds like you miss home?"

"A little bit, but hearing about my family laughing at my death is pretty heartbreaking actually," he replied dejectedly.

"Were you not close with your parents?"

He shook his head, "They cared about me. They put up with my problems. But I could tell they were always disappointed that I never really wanted much more out of life." Memories returned to him of his time at home. He had mixed feelings about them. "I guess it's part of why I've changed so much now? The confidence and calmness I mean. Its something I want to do because it's something that I _can_ do. A want to be something more than whatever I was before"

"Well, that's why you're here, right?"

Kazuma shrugged, "I wasn't left with many options"

"But you still chose to come here out of all those options. Because here you can be praised by the people of town, of this world even, if you slay the demon king. Not just as _something_ more, but as a hero." Aqua stuck out her hand, giving him a thumbs up.

He nodded and they smiled at each other. They entered the market district and found the guild just ahead of them.

"Should we stop by the guild for some breakfast?" Aqua asked.

"And pay for it with what?" Kazuma reminded her.

"oh, right" Aqua pouted.

"Even if we had the money, I don't think we have the time. The sun is pretty high over the horizon now"

Aqua looked up, blocking the sun with her hand from directly hitting her eyes, "Yeah, it is"

"It was quite the walk, I think we'll need to get up earlier. Can your internal clock do that?" He said it jokingly.

"I think so," She nodded, missing the tone in his voice.

He tilted his head, but decided to change the subject instead, "How are you holding up so far?"

"I'm ok for now"

"Are you sure? We're going to have a rough time starting out here, you know"

"Well, I'm making the best out of our situation at least. It's not like you can do much to help right now"

"That's true," he rubbed the back of his head, he still felt like he owed her for dragging her through all this with him, "But tell me if you need anything and i'll see what I can do anyway"

"The best way for you to help me right now would be to slay the demon king so I can go home," she sighed, "But that won't be happening for a while"

"er- Yeah, I guess not," He rubbed his head and their conversation faded to an awkward silence. The worst kind of silence for Kazuma. He never knew what to do about the atmosphere or when the conversation halted. Lacking a topic to jump to, he decided to try and bear through it. He took deep breaths and let his mind wander, his eyes darting around to the sights around them.

"Is something wrong Kazuma?" Aqua asked.

He regained his composure instantly, "huh?"

"You just seemed kind of twitchy there, was I doing something weird?" She gasped and her cheeks went red, "Was I speaking my thoughts out loud?"

"No, you weren't doing that," Kazuma quickly assured her and thought of something else to talk about, "It's just- well, was I really making a face?"

"Nope," Her expression changed from panic to mischievous and she snickered.

He smacked himself in the face, "That's the last time I'm falling for that, then"

They met with their new employer after reaching the wall at the other end of town. They met with large, hulking men glaring down on them and Kazuma lost his cool. He awkwardly introduced Aqua and himself, catching the attention of other nearby workers. A small crowd had formed around them, and the number was growing as new people arriving also joined the crowd out of curiosity.

"So you two are new around here, eh?" One of the large men said. He eyed Kazuma specifically though, "You don't look like much"

"W-well," Kazuma struggled to keep eye contact, "I know we don't look like much, but we're hard workers"

"Hm?" Another man glared at them, "You and everybody else in this town punk! You saying the fine townsfolk here aren't hardworking, huh, outsider? Huh?"

Kazuma reared back, almost squealing, "N-no! That wasn't what I, uh, that..." He trailed off, his train of thought being man derailed by fear.

Aqua shook her head, "So much for confidence and calmness". She pulled him back and stepped in front. "Please forgive my friend, he doesn't think before he speaks"

" _You're one to talk!_ " He angrily whispered in her ear.

"I know we don't seem like much, but all we're asking for is a chance here. The guild has faith in us right? Which is why you took us in. We'll pull our weight around here. We promise" She said with her most cheerful smile.

A man cleared his throat and spoke up, "Yeah- uh right. Uh, the guild sent you after all." He turned to the others, "Just a chance, right guys? We can replace them easily if they don't meet our standards."

Aqua gave Kazuma her usual thumbs up and a triumphant smile.

The others gave in as well, giving the two their positions around the construction site. Aqua had managed to talk herself into a more leisurely position, basically as the worksite's maid. Fetching water and towels for people on their break.

Kazuma silently cursed her as he was dragged off to the stockpile.

"We'll need these transported around the site as people need them. You'll need to be fast since there's a lot of workers around. You won't be able to take a break here. Can you handle all that? You're a pretty small guy"

Kazuma hesitated, rubbing the back of his head and unable to make eye contact, "i'll give it my best"

The worker frowned, "Do what you can but don't push yourself. Better that you're out here carrying things around little by little rather than unconscious on the ground"

Kazuma bowed, "Right. Thank you for the opportunity"

"Whatever kid, get to work"

Kazuma stepped closer to the materials, other workers began lifting things from the pile and hauling them off. Kazuma smacked himself in the head, "Pull yourself together!" He shouted out loud, catching glares from the remaining workers. "This can't be too hard right?" He attempted to lift a log off the pile and over his shoulder like the others.

As a man not used to carrying anything more than a plastic bag of junk food and energy drinks, he found himself grunting with all his might as the log landed on his shoulder. He grit his teeth and wrapped a hand around to secure it. His arms burned and his knees buckled as he began his trip towards the workers on the scaffolding. "No big deal. No big deal" He whispered to himself with every step. By the time he had finally set down his first log, some of the others were already heading back to the stockpile for their thirds.

Someone approached his wobbly figure, "Listen, if you can't handle it don't push yourself. There's other jobs you can-"

"No!" Kazuma shot up, still taking short breaths, "I can do this." He nodded, more to convince himself than the others, and jogged back to the pile. "I can't let myself give in so easily just because it gets rough, not if i'm going to defeat the demon king," He muttered to himself and gripped another log. Steeling his resolve, he grunted and lifted his second log, taking off faster than before. He managed to improve his speed by a few seconds. He grinned to the workers watching him. "I can keep going", He said between breaths. They watched him hesitantly as he lifted another log off the pile with an agonizing grunt. Kazuma grimaced but set out once again.

When he returned to the stockpile, he paused, staring at the pile as others moved around him. Someone set a hand on his shoulder and he looked up.

One of the workers nodded to him and gave him an encouraging look, "Keep it going kid". He hoisted a log over his shoulder and left Kazuma behind. Kazuma once again lifted a log over his shoulder, he could feel the bark cutting his skin through his track suit but ignored it. As he stepped forward this time however, he heard voices cheering him on.

"There you go, kid! Put some back into it!"

"Pace your breathing! Don't hyperventilate while carrying that!"

"One step at a time! You got this!"

Ultimately he still got less work done than the others. Kazuma collapsed on the ground at the end of the day, sweaty with scratches bleeding through his shoulder and palms. A foreman stood over his panting form and leaned over him, shielding him from the setting sun.

"You did good work today kid. You surprised me"

Kazuma didn't have the energy left to respond.

"But it looks like you'll need to rest tomorrow- Hey now! Don't strain yourself, I didn't say you were fired. Just that you'll need the day off tomorrow," He pushed Kazuma back down onto the ground as he tried to rise in protest.

Kazuma, satisfied, let his body go limp in the dirt again.

"Your girlfriend can have the day off too, since you look like you'll need her to take care of you"

Kazuma cringed at the statement, still too weak to say anything.

"Really, you aren't much but you remind me of me when I was young. Full of spirit and fire. Tell you what, how about you two just come in every other day, eh? We can get somebody else to fill in those days since it's not like I'll be paying you while you're resting. I like your spirit so I'll keep you around. But keep in mind kid, know that refusing to give up can be just as bad as it can be good. Make sure you rest up nice and proper when you can," He set a bag down next to Kazuma and walked off.

Aqua took his place, appearing over Kazuma with a cup of water and a towel. She helped him sit up, setting the towel on his head, and he greedily gulped down the water. Aqua set the cup aside and set her sack of eris down next to his. They sat in silence for a while, a comfortable one this time. Or maybe he was just too tired to care. Kazuma stared up at the darkening blue sky above and Aqua sat by, watching him recover.

"You did great out there," she finally said when his breathing seemed to return to normal.

"Thanks," He returned a weak smile and tried to lift his arms, "Seems like he was right about resting tomorrow"

Aqua giggled and his smile grew.

When he found the strength to move his arms, he dumped the eris on his lap and counted them.

"It's really not much," Kazuma wiped his head with the towel, "This is enough for rent at the stables for tonight and tomorrow, dinner, and then breakfast tomorrow"

"Eh, really?" Aqua pouted, "It felt like so much more"

Kazuma shrugged, "Yeah, but we'll have to save some money if we ever want to get ourselves equipment. I just figured it would be best to side aside some extra eris on top of that for rent emergencies. Also, we're not working tomorrow so we need eris for that" He left out the fact that they wouldn't have enough for dinner tomorrow.

"So we have to skip a meal?" Aqua sighed, "Can't we hold off on saving up for equipment?"

"It's just for a couple of work days. We'll have enough backed up by then to be secure for rent" He explained to her.

She frowned but didn't say anything.

"After that we'll even have enough to buy small things like blankets and sheets for ourselves" He assured her, recounting their payment to double check himself.

"I understand," She said glumly, "Or maybe not completely, but I trust you"

"Right then," He pocketed the eris as, with Aqua lacking pockets on her dress, he was the only one able to do so. He stood up at last, legs aching in defiance "Let's head to the bathhouse"

"Yeah, then you'll have to tell me all about this 'girlfriend' who's supposed to be taking care of you every other day," she teased and he groaned.

"I didn't have the energy to say anything, i'm sorry," He replied.

Aqua shook her head, "It's fine, that means I get the day off too"

Kazuma stretched his arms as they walked. His stomach rumbled and he placed a hand over it, "Right, we haven't eaten anything all day, huh?"

"Hm? Oh, you passed out just before lunch break"

"What!" Kazuma screamed and faced at her.

"Yeah, that was when they woke you up earlier. They let you rest during the break, putting you in the shade, and when they woke you up you just got right back into the cycle"

Kazuma sobbed, "and I was all apologetic for falling asleep too"

"Now we have jobs at least"

"Yeah, I guess," He pouted.

They washed up for the night before heading to the guild for dinner. They ate minimally, sparing only what they could to meet Kazuma's budget, and continued to recount their first day actually working. With Aqua being a goddess and Kazuma being a shut in, neither had really experienced it before. Kazuma struggled more so than Aqua, but she still worked and received pay regardless. After that, they collapsed in their stall, sleeping the exhaustion away.

* * *

 **And so they're off to work now! Ready to get down and dirty to get themselves some starting gear! It's only been a day between the two but they've come to trust each other.** **It won't take much longer before they head out on their first quest though. There will be a minor time skip next since there's not much left for them to do but save up for equipment.**

 **As for the idea of Kazuma starting out as a mage since his intelligence was high, I questioned that of the anime too. But I'm guessing it has something to do with his other stats lacking at that level, or maybe his intelligence wasn't high enough yet to start as a mage. Plus, I didn't want to throw Kazuma into a class just yet. In the anime, Kazuma spreads his skills out to abilities that seem useful rather than focus towards a class. I doubt Kazuma would jump for mage right away since he'll be able to cast some sort of magic regardless.**

 **Thank you again for reading! If you have suggestions, then I'm all ears.**


	4. Shopping and A Little More

**Hello there. First of all, thanks for reading and thank you for all your reviews and suggestions.**

 **Secondly, sorry this took so long. The original delay was because this chapter was going to be something else entirely. Then the rewrite was mostly finished and my final review and upload was supposed to be last Monday, but I got the flu over the weekend instead. So I was in bed and completely out of it for a while.**

 **Anyway, i'm feeling much better now and this chapter came out longer than originally planned so there's that at least.**

* * *

Kazuma smiled. It had been a while since he had come outside, almost two weeks in fact, and been able to move as freely as he was currently. The strain the work put on him and his body was something he had never experienced before. Aqua helped him recover with healing magic, but in the mortal realm her divine powers were locked away due to her level. Meaning that at best she was healing the scratches and bruises only on the surface. Beyond that, his body seemed to naturally adapt and grow just as a normal body should. To his dismay however, he found that while his body ached less and recovered faster, his muscles did not grow. His guess was that stats were dictated purely by level, leaving him as small and weak as he had started.

But his fast recovery from the workload yesterday wasn't the reason he was in such a good mood. It was the sight of his companion playing with the local children. They seemed to be playing a kind of hide and seek tag. She was energetic as ever without a care in the world. He would never admit it to her, but in his mind she looked the most beautiful when she was relaxed and, more specifically, not annoying him. Though it looked like her energy was fading rapidly, as 'playing' was a bit of an overstatement. It looked more like the kids were bullying her at this point. Knowing the town better than Aqua did, they slipped in and out of the alleyways to taunt her as she ran back and forth. The kids weren't even bothering with hiding by the end. Kazuma's smile faded into a look of pity as Aqua's joyful expression quickly broke down to tears welling up in her eyes.

At long last, Aqua slumped to her knees, whining that it wasn't fair. He couldn't help but notice that she acted like a child herself at times.

Kazuma approached when all the kids came out of their 'hiding' spots. Aqua stood up and the kids began circling her, asking her to play some more. The older boys, the eldest looking only 13, seemed to be hitting on her though. Aqua had to awkwardly shut them down and Kazuma laughed.

She turned around at the sound of his voice, "Ah, Kazuma you're up!" She quickly shuffled away from the crowd of kids and escaped to Kazuma.

"You seem pretty popular," His eyes glanced at the young preteens. They blushed and looked away.

"Well, it's only natural. I am a goddess after all," Aqua flaunted.

He smiled, shaking his head but expecting nothing less of her, "yeah, yeah. Today's the day, are you ready?" He held up a bag of eris that they had been saving up.

"Of course!" Her expression beamed, but she turned around to face the kids again, "Wait, give me a moment"

He walked away to give her time to say goodbye to the kids, waiting just at the edge of the street corner.

"We'll play some more another day, ok?" Aqua leaned over to bring her face closer to the younger children, her skirt hiking up her rear and almost, but not quite, exposing herself completely.

Kazuma's face flushed as his instincts glued his eyes to her form. "Damn her, why does she wear such a short skirt," He muttered to himself, trying to not seem as obvious as the other bystanders.

"Awww," most of the kids pouted at Aqua.

"Aqua, is that your boyfriend?" A young girl asked, pointing to Kazuma.

He looked off into the distance, as did most of the other males in the vicinity, as Aqua turned her head to him, "Eh? No! Of course not"

A part of him was disappointed at how quickly she denied it, another part reminded him that she was a goddess and he was a mere mortal.

"Really? Then when will we meet him?" The girl continued.

Kazuma strained his ears, his neutral expression seeming a bit forced.

"Hm? Who are you talking about?" Aqua replied.

He relaxed when he realized she was just as clueless to what they were talking about.

"You know, that boy you keep talking about. You had this funny smile while talking about how reliable and funny he is-"

Aqua quickly covered the child's mouth, interrupting her with a nervous laugh and shooting a glance at Kazuma, who was leaning against a wall acting as if he was out of earshot. She let out a sigh of relief and whispered, "It's not like that, ok? He's just a good friend"

The kids themselves looked uncertainly at her.

She stood up and returned to Kazuma after saying her goodbyes.

"Say, Kazuma" She stopped in front of him, "Did you hear anything?"

Kazuma swallowed his breath and regained his composure, "Oh, not much. Just a little bit at the end there, she was pretty loud after all, about how there's this amazing and handsome guy you're really into-"

She snorted, "handsome?"

Kazuma's pride took a direct hit. "tsch," He scoffed, accepting that he set himself up for that.

Aqua let out a soft laugh, "well, did you like the view at least?" She winked.

"Of course," He replied without hesitation and gave her his most leering grin.

She stepped back, instinctively covering herself. Her face was a mixture of confusion and fear, "Hey wait, you're not supposed to just come out and say it like that"

Kazuma gave a dark chuckle and shrugged, "You said it yourself a while ago, remember? I'm not the kind of guy to hide my perverseness." In actuality he was burning up on the inside, but he refused to be bested by Aqua so early in the morning. He pursued his advantage and turned the conversation on her, "So what was all this about a guy then, hm?"

"Eh?" Aqua stuttered, "W-well..." Her voice trailed off, she was staring at Kazuma like a deer in the headlights.

"Funny and reliable?" He laughed menacingly and slowly reached for her, "I'll show you just how _funny_ I can be"

Aqya broke eye contact, blushing and stuttering. She put one hand over her mouth, muffling her voice, but he could still hear every word clearly, "N-not in public." She shifted around but didn't move away from him, instead, she met his gaze.

His heart nearly skipped a beat, his thoughts thrown into disarray.

"Got you," Her composure immediately returned and she smirked at his dumbfounded form.

"That's cheating," Kazuma pouted with his heartbeat still pounding. He crossed his arms as she had her turn to laugh.

Aqua began to walk down the street, unaware of the kids watching the scene before them, and called to Kazuma, "Come on, let's go get shop for our gear".

He looked at her and she smiled. Not one of her usual condescending or mischievous smiles, but a genuine one that she so rarely gave him. It was a sign that he was getting somewhere with her. She normally beamed with beauty when she was just relaxed and casual, but a smile like that? There was no defense for a shut in like him. "That's definitely cheating," he repeated in a whisper, frowning as he followed her.

"Did you say something?" Aqua asked when he caught up.

"I was asking again, uh, what was all that? About me I mean"

She cleared her throat before speaking, "Eh-heh. It was just embarrassing hearing that I was praising somebody like that from someone else"

Kazuma nodded, understanding her pride as a goddess, "Oh, ok"

"I did mean it though," She leaned into him and poked his cheek. He turned his head to her and she straightened up, "So can I ask you something?"

"Sure," He nodded.

"You seem like such a reliable guy- No, you _are_ a reliable guy with a decent sense of humor, like I said. So why'd you just lock yourself away in your room all the time? You could've probably easily landed yourself a girlfriend if you tried, you know"

"Well that's the thing isn't it? _'Trying'_ is the keyword there," he frowned, his eyes moving to the road ahead of them.

"Hm?" She waited.

Kazuma took a deep breath before continuing, "I told you about my parents and I before, right? About how I never really wanted much out of life? I wasn't exaggerating any of that. When I was younger I was just like every other kid, I had dreams of becoming a policeman or an astronaut or whatever. But as I grew up... I don't even know what happened. People's expectations were just a little too much for me I guess. All my relatives and teachers kept saying that I was such a smart kid, that straight A's were no problem for me if I just applied myself, you know what they tell every kid. So I 'applied' myself and got those straight A's everyone kept talking about"

He glanced at her, she was listening patiently. No sign of mocking or teasing him.

"And it felt so anticlimactic. It was exhausting to keep up and study 4 hours a night every night and for what? A 'good job' and a 'keep it up'? Well, I tried to keep it up. But I was always too burned out to go out with friends or hang out with anybody on the weekends from all the studying. So I just stayed inside all day, playing video games or sleeping. But after a while I just couldn't take it anymore. I let my grades slip to C's and B's and gave up. That attitude, combined with the fact that I hadn't interacted with my classmates for any of the previous years, left me by myself."

He frowned as he remembered being shunned and isolated.

"So I just continued my pattern, except with much less studying and more video games. My parents never complained about my borderline failing grades cause I kept them at that just barely passing zone. Looking back, I wasn't exactly _rude_ to my parents per se, but I was definitely not being a good son."

He laughed a little.

"How they put up with me acting like that, I'll never know. So yeah, that's pretty much my story. I never tried to reapply myself back into my classmates activities because I hadn't developed any social skills. Any that I had before that just wilted and wasted away... But..."

"... But?" She tilted her head.

"But here I don't really have much of a choice. It's work or die right now, and soon it'll be fight or die. All so we can level up and I can get you home," He caught her eyes with his, "I got you into this mess, I promise I'll get you home"

The sudden resolve in his voice took her by surprise. They stared at each other in silence for a fleeting moment.

Kazuma broke the gaze in the next, his face bright and rubbing the back of his head, "Wow, what am I saying? Sorry, I bet that was really cheesy."

"ahaha," She replied with an awkward laugh, "No it was fine"

"You know, I say that and I'm determined to follow through with it... But will someone like me really be able to kill the demon lord?"

She paused, trying to think of something to say, "Well, can't be worried about that right now. That's still a long ways away"

"Yeah, that's true"

"Besides, Kazuma, you're forgetting something"

"I am?"

"Everything will be fine because I'm here" She smiled, hoping to cheer him up.

He returned a smile of his own, "That's true. You are a goddess after all."

Aqua took the lead as they entered the marketplace.

"I've been taking trips here too since I've had nothing else to do. I've already found mine, but what kind of weapon are you looking for?"

"Hm," he frowned, "I haven't thought about it yet. I guess I just wanted to look around before deciding what kind of fighter I want to be. How about we get yours first?"

"Ok, right this way," She took him by the hand and dragged him further into the market at a sprint, with a smile on her face like a child on Christmas morning.

"Hey- Hey! Slow down, you're slamming me into people!" Kazuma yelled at her, mixing in apologies to the people around him.

She ignored him, running down the street in glee.

Kazuma groaned, "If you're not going to slow down at least tell me what you're buying. I said we've only got this much to spend today and I mean it, we've saved up and our emergency stash is for utility only"

"That's fine, the thing I want isn't too expensive anyway" She finally replied, slowing down as they approached a stand.

"Why are you so energetic today? Calm down a little" He sighed and pulled out the eris, handing the bag to her. "Here, remember to save a little bit for me"

Aqua hummed a happy tune to herself as she walked off. Kazuma watched her greet the merchant and happily held up the bag of eris. He couldn't help but smile at her excitement, she was infectious. Aqua asked for something specifically and the merchant nodded and laughed along with her. He pulled out a white staff from underneath the table, presenting it in an exagerated manner. It seemed to get to Aqua though, as she clapped her hands and exhanged the money for it. Her eyes sparkled as she faded away into her own world.

The merchant waved his goodbyes and she turned away from him to show off the staff to Kazuma. It was simple in design, it seemed fairly cheap after all, but also looked well made. In a worse case scenario, Aqua swinging the staff around would last a few good hits for her to get away from smaller monsters.

"Look, Kazuma, look! Feast your eyes on my amazing new staff!"

"Yes, yes, I see it in all it's glory," He replied monotonously, knowing she wouldn't stop pestering him until he complimented it.

"That's right, with this, I'm one step closer to getting my divine powers back!"

"Heh, I guess I'm technically on a date right now," Kazuma thought to himself, grinning as he watched her play with the staff. She looked at him again and smirked.

"Hmmm? What's that? If you're going to consider today a date you better spoil me after this."

"Uh, wait- I said that out loud? I-" He stuttered, stepping away from her.

She grinned even wider, "Come on, let's look around for your weapon then." She reached for him, but instead of holding him by the hand, she wrapped an arm around his.

"Hey- Hold on, that's going a little far for a joke," His eyes darted around him, getting envious and hateful glares from the men around him.

She ignored him, humming a tune to herself as she slowly dragged him through the market, giving him a tour as she pointed out various vendors, "Look, they have all types of weapons here. The guild market is pretty busy so I bet swords go really fast. Swords can chip after extended use right? The fact that we're only a two man party probably means you'll do all of the fighting. So you probably want cheap ones and get a few spare sets. Or we can spend most of what's left on something nice and you can get a single cheap spare"

"Eh? You sure know a lot about this," His body was tense and his face was just as stiff. Aqua clung onto his shoulder, her staff in her other hand.

"I said I took a few trips here, I asked around about weapons before," She pouted, "And you're so stiff, it's not comfortable to lean on. Relax a little"

"How can you say that? How could I when I know you're clearly just doing this to mess with me!"

There was a silence as she stared at him. "I wonder..." She whispered.

"Huh? What does that mean?" He stared at her suspiciously

She smiled and merely laughed him off.

"No, really, tell me what is that supposed to mean! You're scaring me!"

"Come on, we have other types of swords to look at"

He groaned but followed along, "Didn't realize I was _this_ much of a beta sub"

She leaned back on his shoulder and he tried to relax as ordered. "Better," She smiled.

Aqua continued to drag him around the market from vendor to vendor, showing him the many different types of weapons the market had to offer. From staffs to spears, he would take them all into consideration.

But Kazuma stopped in front of a fancy sword that caught his attention

"Wow" His eyes dazzled at a two handed great sword. The hilt and pommel alone looked more expensive than his earth home.

"Heheh, quite a beauty huh?" The old vendor smiled, "Though, your build doesn't look like you'd be made to tank, is this for a friend?"

"Huh? This would be for tanks?"

"Well, the general aim for two handed weapons would be for somebody who could tank a few hits with the lack of a shield and all"

"Oh I see..." Kazuma nodded, "What classes would that be?" He took in the other weapons on display, each one as large as the last and just as expensive as the first.

"I usually see Knights or Paladins pick great swords up, though those would be the damage dealing frontliners. They can take a few hits and then some with a support mage and keep going. A proper tank would take a one handed sword and shield, however"

"You're thinking about being a knight?" Aqua asked.

"Well, they're always the ones in the stories to slay the demon lord, aren't they?" Kazuma thought, "I usually always played as a mage or some sort of ranged damage dealer though"

The old vendor chuckled, "Ah yes, I remember playing make believe with my old friends when I was younger. I was always a knight myself"

"Ah, yeah, make believe with friends," Kazuma repeated, forgetting that aside from Aqua, no one would know about video games.

"But like I said, you don't really look built to tank. I'd say leave that to someone else"

"Well what do you suggest, mister?" Kazuma looked up from the blades to the vendor.

The old man put a hand on his chin and eyed Kazuma carefully, "Definitely a lightweight class. I'd say go with a short sword or a dagger. You'd make a decent scout or archer"

"Lightweight class, huh," Kazuma let the thought settle, "Yeah, I don't think I'd have the strength to lift such a large sword anyway."

"It's not a bad thing, many large scale parties require a good scout to give them information. The best parties can all fall apart with a single mistake, so the scout is just as important. Or you could be a ranger if you're not feeling like being face to face with danger. Though that's just during the fight, rangers are often used as scouts as well"

Kazuma nodded, his head spinning as it filled up with possibilities and scenarios from his RPG games.

"Could you point us to where the shorter swords are, mister?" Aqua spoke up.

"Right that way," He pointed behind his stall, "A few rows down will be all the short one handed weapons."

"Thanks," She grabbed Kazuma again, tearing his attention away from the vendor.

"Stay safe you two, naïve young couples on their first adventure are always the first ones to go."

Aqua giggled as Kazuma replied with a flustered, "thanks."

"So what'll it be?" Aqua asked.

"Huh?" He glanced at her, it was hard to turn his neck with her on his shoulder.

"What class are you thinking about?"

"We're still level one, we don't even have a single point yet. I'll worry about that later. For now I need to find a weapon I'm comfortable with"

"As comfortable as you are with me?" He gave her a questioning look and she batted her eyes at him.

He reached up with his left arm and flicked her forehead, "This is _not_ comfort. This is just being used to dealing with you."

She pouted, "Oh come on Kazuma, that was your chance to earn some real points with me there. If you would've just said something like 'It's always comfortable around you', you would've had me in your arms for real." She said, attempting to mimic Kazuma's voice.

"I _refuse_ to ever say something as sappy as that"

"And you complain about never having a girlfriend," she stuck her tongue out at him.

"I've never complained about it before you started asking about my personal life," He countered.

"Isn't that because you had no friends to complain to?"

"I- You- That's not the point, shut up. Weren't you against having me as a boyfriend anyway?"

"Hmm," She put a finger on her chin, "I don't recall"

"Don't lie to me!" He sighed.

Aqua smiled out of his view, letting go of him as they approached a short weapon stand.

"Say, does a local black smith make these? Why are there so many different vendors for such similar things?" Kazuma leaned on the table, gesturing towards the many shops around. In this row of merchants, everybody was selling different variations of short weapons from daggers to throwing knives to kukris.

"Aha, newcomers are ye?"

They both nodded.

"'Is like thi', Some go to a' local blacksmith and place speciah orders for weapons. It's up to the merchent to get the ore though. For others, they'll exchange goods for goods, say some local luxury fer some exotic weapons, when they're out traveling. And fer a few cases, like yers' truly, we make our own blades"

"Ooh," the two glanced at the various weapons around his stall in awe.

"It's the self made vendors you can trust with your life, cause you know they know what theys talking about" He reached over the table and tapped a little logo on the cloth, "Ye need ah permi' and proo' fo yer smithing background to get one of 'ese." It was a silhouette of a hammer striking an anvil with a circle around it.

Kazuma recalled seeing one beside the great sword they just came from.

"So wha' are ye kiddos looking fer?"

"I'm not sure, this'll be my first weapon," Kazuma shrugged.

"Neva' practiced any lil thing before?"

He shook his head.

The vendor sighed, "Alrigh' thas fine, won't be the firs' kiddo round here to star' with me, and ye won' be the last." He took out different length short swords and set them on the table for Kazuma. "Can' have you testin' em see, can' be damaging my goods. But take yer time and swing'em round, see how they feel."

Aqua stepped to the side and Kazuma picked up the shortest sword. It felt light in his hands but the reach felt wrong. It didn't feel like he would hit anything meaningful with such a short blade. He gave it a few practice swings and frowned.

"Yea' figured tha' one was too short fer ye. Onto the next one 'en"

Kazuma nodded and moved onto the next sword. It was heavier, but it still felt light. He swung the sword around and felt like it was too loose for him still.

"Still too shor' for ye? Alrigh' try 'is one," the vendor brought out another sword for Kazuma, who happily took the blade.

"This one," He spoke with confidence and nodded as he felt the weight leave the support of the table. It was light enough for him to hold for extended periods of time and felt heavy enough to feel like he could deal sufficient damage. He gave it a few practice swings and smiled as he felt the power behind every swing.

"Looks abou' righ', yeah," The vendor nodded his approval.

Aqua took the sword from him while he pulled out the bag of eris.

"How much will that be?" Kazuma asked.

"I'll give ye' a discoun'cause I've got a good feelin about the two o' ye" The vendor slid the sheath and buckle across the table and Kazuma slipped it on. He sheathed his weapon and felt good about the new weight, despite the fact that it was causing him to lean slightly into it, "Don' know wha' it is but ye seem like ye'll get summin done 'round here"

"How about a spare, do you have an extra?" Kazuma asked, sliding the eris across the table.

"Hm? Good thinking ahea' kid, but tell ye wha'. If tha' thing chips or breaks or whatever durin yer firs' adventure, come back and I'll give ye a new one fer free"

"Really?" Kazuma put his hands together and bowed, "Thank you"

"Don't thank me yet, it's just my guarantee. Now go on and scram. Go be flirty with yer girl elsewhere"

Kazuma sighed but left with Aqua in tow, giving the vendor one last thanks as he led Aqua out of the market.

"So that's done now" He said, satisfied.

"Now what? Do we go on our first kill quest?" Aqua asked, finally getting off his arm.

"You know, as much as I want to, I've got a date to finish," He smiled jokingly.

"Oh, is that right?"

"Yeah, that last vendor gave us a nice discount so we still have a little to play with," He shook the bag, "Want to head to the guild and celebrate? We can officially start adventuring now but we'll set off tomorrow"

"Well, I'd really like to go adventuring today, but that sounds nice too."

"We've had quite the setbacks so far, but we've managed to work our way through to this point. You know the hill is only going to get steeper from here, though."

"Mm" She nodded, "But we'll watch each other, right? You've got a long way to go to get me home, so you won't be dying on my watch!"

He nodded in return, "We'll watch over each other until we can get you home and I'm a famous demon slaying hero."

He held out his hand and she grabbed it.

And they made their way into the guildhall once more.

* * *

 **So what do you think?**

 **First, I don't even know what dialect or accent I was going for with the short sword vendor, I just felt like he needed something special about him.**

 **I wanted Kazuma to get used to rigorous activities for their upcoming adventuring but I didn't want him to become super athletic. So I decided to mix a bit of reality and a bit more RPG into it. You know like muscles break down from extended use and repair themselves stronger and that sort of thing. But instead of his muscles growing his body just gets used to the strain and he recovers faster that way. It's not like he has fast regeneration or self healing now, he won't be healing bigger wound like this, but he won't be as exhausted as he would've been before simply from running around. And then taking inspiration from RPGs, character stats are dictated by level and can be boosted further with items. Though I don't think I'll be writing Kazuma's stats down anywhere. It'll be easier to be consistent in the long run that way.**

 **Back to his class again, I liked the red mage idea so i'm leaning towards that. It's similar to his original build and still leaves him potential to branch out that way. Though the party already has support and offensive mages so I'd want his magic to be a bit more unique, maybe he'll explore thief/sneaking type magic more. I wouldn't want him turning into an assassin like class since** **he's not really serious enough for that. But I could see him using crowd control spells while sneaking around to cause mayhem and confusion on the battlefield.**

 **Now I feel like Aqua, with her impulsiveness and lack of a filter, would just do whatever she wanted to him when it comes down to it. But with the whole goddess/human thing and (probably) never falling in love before, she's questioning her feelings towards Kazuma. Regardless, she still teases him and all that because she still wants to have fun with him.**

 **On the other hand, Kazuma is interested in her but is wary about her advances. Between all their bantering and interactions, everything feels like a threat or scheme to embarrass him. She'll have to change her plan of attack or really step up the game when she decides to follow her feelings. But for now, they're still just teasing and playing with each other.**


	5. The Lone Wizard

**Oh yes, Kazuma's sword is the same generic starting sword. I just thought that Aqua's staff was a little fancy for their early quests and I wanted something basic for her.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

* * *

"Aqua?" A single word was spoken. The breath that carried it was cold enough to chill the air.

She shivered from the sound of her own name. "Yes, Kazuma, my _most benevolent_ and _forgiving_ companion?" She smiled stiffly. The satchel at her side swung around to follow her motion and splashed against the mud.

"Why is it that we're only a day into our first adventure, yet we seem to have lost our weapons?" Their first time was starting off badly. It seemed to him that her abysmal luck stats countered his excellent one.

"Well, Kazuma the great and handsome, you see," She laughed sheepishly, "A certain _someone_ dropped the map in the mud pits, so _I_ valiantly tried to use my staff to find it by poking around."

"Someone?" Kazuma stood up, his track suit soaked in mud, and glared at her. Unlike their normal exchanges, he was feeling genuinely upset about their situation. He glared deep into the side of her face, hoping she could feel his wrath.

"Yes, I wonder who it could be?" She turned her back to him, averting his eyes. She slouched over more while wading her hands through the mud faster. She even slid around, hoping to catch the handle of something, of anything.

He sighed, "Never mind the map, I'm wondering how you managed to get _my_ sword lost as well. I left you alone for 10 minutes!"

"So I dropped my staff in the mud because I slipped, right? And I didn't want to get on my hands and knees to get my dress all dirty, so I pulled out your sword and started swinging it around through the mud and-"

"Stop!" He shouted, dragging his mud soaked hands through his hair. His frustration overwhelmed his disgust and immediate regret, "You thought _nothing_ was wrong with that plan?"

She recoiled slightly from his tone and tried to explain herself, "I just thought that I would hear a wack better then I would feel a muddy staff with my hands, you know?"

Kazuma groaned, almost sobbing at this point, and sank his hands back into the ankle deep mud, "10 measly minutes to take down our camp and I come back to this?"

"I know! I know! I already feel really bad, don't make me feel worse," She pouted while sloshing the mud around her.

"I'd say you don't feel bad enough" Kazuma replied coldly. Excitement gripped him for a brief moment as he touched something solid, only to be disappointed by a small rock.

Aqua paused, then started sniffling. "K-Kazuma," She said his name on the verge of tears. She stared at her companion with her arms slumped to her side, her face begging for forgiveness.

He turned to look at her with an annoyed expression, contemplating about throwing the rock at her. It wouldn't really fix anything, but it would make him feel better.

The fact that she was supposed to be a goddess, now covered in mud and whining about how she couldn't even wipe her tears away with her muddy hands, was doing very little to convince him. But the fact that, with their gear now lost, all they had left was each other again, stopped him from doing anything he knew he would regret.

He sighed and stuffed the muddy rock into his jacket pocket before taking it off, revealing his plain black under shirt all the way. He pulled the jacket inside out, leaning over her, and wiped her face with the inside. Some of the wetness had seeped through, but at least there wasn't mud on it. He wiped as much mud as he could off her face while speaking to her.

"Come on, stop crying. We'll just have to go back to construction work for a while," He tucked the track suit underneath his arm and held out his muddy hand for her.

She sniffled and let him help her up. "I'm sorry," She mumbled an apology.

He reached up and nearly placed a hand on her head before stopping. Instead he took his muddy hands to hers and guided her out of the pit, "I said it's fine, ok? Our gear is replaceable."

She smiled and nodded, her face still carrying a trail of tears, "Thank you"

They exited the pit and stood under the sun. It was beginning it's descent towards the horizon, but still high enough to have a blue sky. Kazuma tied his track suit jacket around his waist and stretched his arms. He frowned, "I'm going to be sore tomorrow."

"Kazuma?" She spoke his name softly, self conscious about her every action. Wary about saying or doing anything to frustrate him again.

"Yes, yes, I'm Kazuma," He nonchalantly replied to her call.

"How do we get back to town?"

"I was just thinking about that myself," He looked around them, hills stretched as far as the horizon without a road in sight, "We're only about a day away from town, so the road should be nearby somewhere. Let's at least look around for the river. That way we can get some of this mud off us."

"Ok," She nodded and they set off for the top of the nearest hill.

"How did these mud pits even get here, anyway? It hasn't rained in a while and the river is pretty far from here." Kazuma spoke, partially to himself, but mostly to give some noise to the silent afternoon.

"Hm, I wonder," Aqua took a peek behind them, "The guild said the monsters would be around this area right? But I don't see any farm animals _or_ giant frogs"

"You think we were too late to stop them then?" Kazuma frowned. If the frogs had already gotten the animals in this area and wandered off, they would have wasted their time camping here the night before. They had to spend their time wisely as they no longer had a guaranteed pay at the end of a work day.

"No, I think someone might've taken care of the frogs in this area," She shook her head.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, you said it hadn't rained for a few days, right? So that might mean the mud was cause by some sort of water magic, or something similar," she deduced.

He nodded, "That makes sense. So what, do you think we should move onto the next farm then?"

"I don't know, I'm not good with plans. You're always the one who makes them," she shrugged.

He put a hand on his chin, smearing his under lip with mud. She followed in silence and waited.

"Ok then. Since we have food for a few days I say we wash up in the river and set up camp again. The town is just over one of the hills on the horizon, somewhere, and if it gets really bad we can just beg the farmer for a loaf of bread and to use his barn," He decided.

"We're not going back to town?" Aqua asked while she picked off the larger chunks of mud that had become brittle off her skirt.

"I was just thinking," He turned to her and gestured to the mud pit, "That we came here to fight the demon lord, not do manual labor. So we should at least try for a little longer to find our weapons."

Aqua looked uncertain, "Hmm"

"Is something wrong?" He asked her.

"What about the frogs?"

"We haven't seen any all day. I'd say that your guess about someone else clearing out the frogs here is a good guess."

She looked around, seeming to question her own statement.

"You'll be fine, you don't want to go back to construction work and give up so easily, do you? After all the time we spent and haven't accomplished anything yet, the longer we take to start the longer it will take to get stronger"

"Yeah, you're right. We're so close to becoming official adventurers. I can't just give that up now!" She nodded.

Kazuma grinned, he was getting good at riling up and manipulating Aqua to be more motivated. She seemed to give up so easily in the face of a challenge. All it took was saying adventuring in the right context, which she seemed to be so obsessed about, and she would get fired up.

They stood on top of the hill and the sound of the river rushing past rocks was faintly heard.

"Just over the next hill or two," Kazuma noted, "Do you want to go first?"

"Hm?" Aqua stared at him questioningly.

"What?" He returned the suspicious stare.

"Are you going to peek on me?"

Kazuma took a moment to eye her up and down before cringing, "You're covered in mud right now. You're beautiful, but not enough to give me a new fetish."

There was an abrupt silence where her normal, pompous reply should have been. He glanced at her and her eyes darted forward.

She cleared her throat, "Of course I am. I am a goddess after all." She smiled before continuing. Another unusual kind of smile, it seemed he had been seeing a lot of those lately. It was friendly and modest. The soft, gentle kind of a smile. He caught his train of thought before he started to stare. "You should be grateful to be able to see a divine figure such as myself covered in filth."

"Yeah, yeah," He attempted to brush her off with red cheeks, "If you're not going to go then how abut letting me go first? I'll just rinse my hands and legs. Then I'll be busy setting up camp over the hill and you can take all the time you need to wash up. The sun's still up so you can just lay on the hillside while your clothes dry."

"I'll probably just wash my arms and legs for now too but you can go first. I'll just warm up by the campfire after I'm done."

"Right," Kazuma nodded as they reached the top of the next hill. He made his way to the river while Aqua stayed at the top. She sat down and hid her face behind her knees as she watched him go.

At the shoreline, he removed his boots and set them aside. He rolled his pant legs up and pulled the jacket off his waist, dipping it into the river. He quickly scrubbed the mud off before spreading it out on the grass behind him. Finally he stepped into the shallow river to wash himself.

Kazuma risked a glance to the hillside and found Aqua nowhere in sight. He let out a deep breath he didn't even realize he was holding.

"What is going on anymore?" He spoke softly as he leaned over to scrub his arms in the water, "She doesn't seem to be thoroughly disgusted with me so I at least have a chance right?"

The lack of response annoyed him, wishing there was another companion- _male_ companion-to have 'guy' talk with.

"Wait. What if this is just another one of her schemes to mess with me? Giving me that cutesy innocent smile just to laugh at me in the end..."

He sighed again, holding back the urge to vent by screaming at the top of his lungs.

"No, damn it! What am I doing? I might have a chance with a girl and I'm going to run away from it?! What's wrong with me?"

Kazuma stepped out of the river and grabbed his boots and jacket. His pants would have to be washed later. For now he had to set up camp. Aqua poked her head over the hill and he waves to her. She stood up, wiping grass off her muddy skirt and moved towards him. She handed him the satchel as they passed each other and he faithfully obscured his view of the river with the hill. Making his way down the other side, he adjusted the satchel and looked through the contents.

Before they left, the ruffian who 'simply had a good feeling' about them, stopped them at the gate with a satchel. He explained that no matter how simple a quest, they should always be prepared to spend several days out of town. He gave them the bag already stocked with camping supplies for a thousand eris. The bag itself was a gift from him for finally starting adventuring, and camping supplies were cheap since all adventurers needed them.

It turned out the ruffian was right. The farmer of the nearby farm they were patrolling had explained that the frogs only came around every so often. Meaning they had to wait until the frogs appeared. The farmer offered his stables and they slept in the bedrolls they bought. They spent the night munching on bread and drinking plain water from their own pouches.

Kazuma pulled out two bedrolls, his was neatly rolled up and folded like a sleeping bag while hers was bundled up into a ball. Setting the satchel down, he laid out the bedrolls a good distance apart. It was about the same distance from the night before yet it felt way too close. But another thought crossed his mind. Did he dare move theirs closer together?

His hands reached out and settled on his own bedroll. He took a deep breath and waited. The thoughts cycled through his mind, flashing pros and cons at a rate he could barley comprehend. His shaking fist pulled against the cloth, lifting one end into the air.

The minutes passed and finally, he closed his eyes and let go of his own bed roll.

He sighed at how pathetic he felt. 'A true man would have moved the bedrolls inches apart to flirt with the girl under the stars' or so he told himself. He laid back against the grass and looked into the dimming sky.

"At least there aren't any clouds tonight." He cracked a grin, remembering a line from a game he played a few years ago, "At least it's not raining."

"Mhm, the sky looks great tonight," Aqua appeared from behind.

Kazuma snapped his head towards her voice. She had washed the mud off her hands and was carrying her boots in her arms. Though her vest and dress were still muddy, he followed her figure down as she came over the hill to her slender, and now clean, legs.

"See something you like?" She said in her usual manner.

Likewise, he felt much calmer now. He couldn't help but grin at her, "Of course my goddess."

She looked around, "No campfire?"

"We don't have anymore firewood to use the fire scroll on," he shrugged.

"Meaning you were too lazy to try and find some sticks?"

"There's not a forest around for miles!"

Aqua smiled at him. He mirrored her and they laughed at each other.

"but listen Aqua..."

She sat on her own sleeping bag and kept her attention on him.

His grin faded and he rubbed the back of his head, "I'm not very good with all the 'reading between the lines' thing. I'd just like to ask: where do we stand with each other?"

Aqua tilted her head and gazed deep into his eyes. There were plenty of times where their conversations would stop like this. Whether it was because the topic became stale or one of them needed to think, they had grown used to it. It was just another normal thing for them. All he could do was wait.

"I don't know," Aqua finally spoke. She sighed and faced the sky, the light blue of the afternoon was slowly being overtaken by the orange hue of sunset, "I'm grateful that you've managed with me for so long. And for forgiving me when I mess up the simplest of things. It's always fun when I'm around you. It feels comfortable..." There was another pause, "But I don't know if I'm ready to talk about that yet. For now, let's just do our best on surviving, ok?"

He nodded, disappointed but satisfied that he cleared his mind.

"You can compliment me all you want though," she added.

He reached into the satchel and pulled out some bread and their water pouches, "It's not much but we can't really afford to spend money on more luxurious takeout meals."

Aqua nodded. "For now at least," She said hopefully.

"Yeah, for now," He agreed. The finished their meal watching the sky deepen to a purple shade.

He slipped deeper into his sleeping bag, the soft rumbling of the earth soothed him as he laid down.

"Goodnight, Kazuma"

He closed his eyes.

"Sleep well, Aqua"

The rumbling became stronger.

And louder.

"Aqua?" He sat up and glanced around.

"What is that?" She replied.

"I don't know"

"It sound's like..." She pointed off in the distance, "Frogs"

"Of course it is," He frowned, "The sun is almost down. I don't know how well we'll be able to fight ," He muttered as he spotted the tops of three massive silhouettes from behind several hills. They staggered their hops, giving the earth a consistent vibration as they approached, "Pack up, now." They stuffed their bedrolls into the satchel and set off at a sprint.

"Kazuma?"

"What?" He asked while panting. Unlike Aqua who started off with high stats, he was left with little to work with.

"What's the plan?"

"We're not going to out run them," He noticed that the frogs were getting closer faster than they were making distance, "And we don't have our weapons. So just run and pray we find another party to save us."

"What? At this hour?"

"Look for a campfire or torches. Any sign of light!"

"Right!" She replied.

Kazuma struggled to keep breathing as the massive frogs were catching up from behind. They ran and ran, the frogs gaining more ground with every hop. The changing steepness of the hills wasn't making it any easier for them. For the frogs, they just bound over hill after hill.

"It's the end!" He screamed as they slipped into the mud pits.

"Darkness blacker than black and darker..." A voice faintly chanted. The sky above them illuminated a deep red.

"Did you hear something?" Aqua asked, they leaned on each other as they stood up.

"Justice, fallen upon the infallible..."

He shook his head, trying to get her attention to the expanding magic circle above them as they continued to run through the mud.

"I desire for my torrent of power..."

He was nearing his limit, wobbling sideways with every step.

"...destructive force without equal!" The voice was getting louder. The sky was getting darker. Magic energy swirled around them and into the sky.

"Whoa! Wait a second, someone is casting a spell on top of us!" Aqua finally noticed and grabbed Kazuma's arm as he was about to collapse, "Don't get caught in the cast zone Kazuma! We have to keep running!"

"And come from the abyss!"

Aqua dove forward, throwing Kazuma to the side as the spell reached the end

"Explosion!"

They both looked behind them as the spell illuminated the dusk. In the air, he noticed things sail into the sky among the mud piles. The explosion was bright enough to see across the way and he spotted their weapons falling from the sky.

"Aqua-" He started to point them out until a soft thud landed behind them. They turned around as a small wizard slid down the hill, face first.

"Heh," She spun her head sideways, off the ground, "How was that?"

"Did you cast that massive spell?" Kazuma asked. She seemed really young, but he was impressed by her.

"Yes. But it takes a lot out of me so I'm currently immobilized. I would appreciate it-"

"Never mind that right now, Kazuma! She only hit one of the frogs!" The three of them looked up. Sure enough, only one of the frogs had disappeared.

The young wizard frowned, "Sorry, It takes a long time to cast so I can't really hit moving targets"

Kazuma stood up, "You did fine. Aqua, did you see where our weapons landed?"

Aqua nodded, "Yes, they're just down there." She pointed below them.

"Well at least it's not all bad then. I'm out of breath, do you think you can get them while I move her?"

She nodded again, taking off for the bottom of the hill. Kazuma wrapped the young wizard's arms around his back and slipped her into a piggy back, taking her further up.

"Thank you for not leaving me behind," The wizard said.

"Well, you did save us after all. From one of the frogs at least," Kazuma replied and set her down at the top of the hill.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to go back down there and help my friend. We're both just level one so we can't do much alone."

"Oh, ok..." There was a small hint of fear in her voice.

Kazuma assured her, "Don't worry, we'll be back for you."

She seemed to calm down, letting herself relax against the hill and he descended towards Aqua. In turn, Aqua was running up the hill with their weapons in hand. He grabbed his sword from her and tried to shake some of the mud off.

"See? It worked out in the end," He joked.

"Kazuma!" She whined, panic in her eyes.

"Sorry, right. What kind of spells do you have?"

"Well I was given a few points right off the start but I only know a light healing spell and a minor affects resistance spell. I'm too low level to unlock anything else," She shrugged.

"Right," He recalled her 'light' healing spell was barely enough to close his small open wounds and bruises from their time at the construction site, "Tanking their damage isn't an option then. And they're resistant to physical attacks so I'll need some time to do damage to them." He groaned as the frogs stopped at the bottom of the hill.

The frogs seemed to be eyeing them and licked their lips.

"Are we having a stand off with frogs right now?" Kazuma questioned.

"Huh," The frogs waited, staring at them, "It would seem so."

"Well. The best plan would be to split them up so we only have to face one of them at a time. Then you draw it's aggro and I'll-"

"Aggro?" Aqua was completely lost.

He clicked his tongue, "Sorry. Get it's attention so it focuses you while I hit it from behind"

"Wait a minute, why me?" Aqua raised her voice, "I'm not a tank! Those things are going to eat me!"

"You have more stamina so you have a better chance of staying alive than I do _and_ considering you don't have any offensive spells yet, my sword is going to do a lot more damage than you whacking them with your staff."

The frogs began to move again, hopping up the hill.

"How are we supposed to separate them then?" Aqua asked, giving in without a better solution.

"Uh... Just run?" Kazuma suggested and ran sideways along the hill.

"What? That's your great plan!?" Aqua shouted and ran in the other direction, splitting the frogs apart.

Kazuma, more enduring than he was before the construction work but still weak due to his level, was already out of air. The frog was rapidly catching up to him. He suddenly shifted himself and ran down the hill, gaining momentum and a meager amount of distance from the frog. He internally cheered as he felt the hopping was no longer getting closer.

"Wait- Help! Help!" A voice screamed from behind.

He turned around, stopping in his tracks and looking up the hill at the wizard. The frog had changed course from following him to the much easier, stationary target.

"Oh, come on!" Kazuma shouted, running back up to save her.

"No! Please save me!" She cried as the frog lifted her with its tongue.

"I'm here, I'm here!" Kazuma shouted, stabbing and slashing at the frog's back. Thankfully, it stayed still while it tried to eat the defenseless girl. He hacked away at chunks of the frogs back and cut it open, but it seemed to feel no pain. "Die already!" He shouted in frustration.

"Kaazuumaaa!" Aqua's voice called from down the hill.

He turned to look without stopping his attacks on the frog. Aqua had tripped and the frog had managed to grab onto her.

"You've gotta be kidding!" Kazuma screamed. He turned back to his first target and plunged his blade in as deep as he could. He pulled it out and with another slash, the frog fell over. The small wizard slipped out of the mouth covered in slime.

"I'm fine now. Thanks for saving me," She said lifelessly, traumatized from getting swallowed, "Go save your friend or that will be on my conscious for the rest of my life."

"Uh, yeah," He said, unsure how to reply.

He made his way down the hill to save Aqua.

At the end of the ordeal he ended up with two girls covered in slime. One whose name he didn't even know and the other in a sobbing fit. He and Aqua were also, once again, covered in mud.

"So..." Kazuma started once he had caught his breath. They were sitting on top of the hill, under the stars, and finally had a moment of peace to greet each other, "That's over now."

"Indeed," The wizard nodded, seemingly getting some of her strength back.

"I'm Kazuma. This is my friend, Aqua"

"Nice to meet you," She was barely understood with her sobbing.

"What's your name?" Kazuma asked patting Aqua on the back with his muddy hands.

"My name is Megumin," The young girl replied.

There was a moment of silence as Kazuma smiled, waiting for her to continue.

"Oh, you're serious?" He finally realized. He cleared his throat, "Well, nice to meet you Megumin."

"Hey, if you've got a problem with my name then just say it!"

"That aside, what were you doing out here, this late at night?"

"..." Megumin responded too softly to hear.

"What?"

"I was hunting frogs," she answered.

"Alone? When you collapse after a spell? Seems like you can only use that explosion every so often"

"Once a day actually. If you cast a spell that uses more of your mana than you have then it also takes some of your hp."

"Why are you out here alone then? Where's your party?"

Megumin hesitated. "No one will take me anymore"

"Why is that? You seem like a really powerful wizard, is there an excess of them or something?"

"No..." She looked away. He could tell she was afraid.

"Then what's wrong?" He pressed on.

She didn't reply.

"Look, Me and her?" He gestured to himself and Aqua, "We're new in town and don't know a single thing about adventuring. We promise even if you tell us, we probably wouldn't even know why it's so bad. We won't laugh." Well, he knew a lot actually but wanted to try and help her. On the other hand, Aqua couldn't laugh since she was still busy crying so he was set.

"I..." Megumin spoke up, "I can only use explosion magic."

"...Oh," He understood immediately. Having a wizard that can only use one type of spell a day, such a large scale overkill spell at that, wouldn't be very useful against small fast moving enemies or inside of dungeons.

Megumin began to tear up at his response, knowing all too well the tone of his voice.

Having two girls crying beside him was _not_ something he needed or wanted. In the worst case a guard or white knight would appear and beat him down without waiting for context. "Hey, hey. Calm down. Why is that such a bad thing?" He tried to play it off, "Can't you just learn more spells as you level up?"

She shook her head, wiping her eyes, "I can't"

Kazuma was shocked.

"I mean I don't want to."

He let out a sigh of relief. He was already struggling to cheer her up. With no experience with magic, he would have had no idea how to talk to her at all. "Why is that?"

She closed her eyes. "It's a long story. The short version is, someone very important to me was very skilled with explosion spells. I want to become just like her."

Kazuma nodded.

"Are you a crimson demon?" Aqua had finally calmed herself down.

Megumin glanced at Aqua, covered in both slime and mud, "Mhm"

"Wow, an arch-wizard of he crimson demon clan?"

"Yes"

"Kazuma," Aqua shook his shoulder.

"Hey, I'm _right_ _here_ there's no need for that!" He wiped her slimy hands off him.

"Crimson demons are naturally gifted with intelligence and are very powerful wizards. One of the few races naturally born to be an advanced class"

"I get it, I get it. Calm down!" He turned to Megumin, "So how about it? I know we aren't much but we'd be happy to take you along."

Megumin smiled, "Yes. I'd be happy to join you." Then she started to cry.

'Just how long have you been alone?' Kazuma asked himself, picking her up on his back again.

"Well, I'm sure not tired anymore. Why don't we head back to town?" Kazuma suggested.

"Yeah, I'm wide awake now and I really need a proper bath," Aqua stood up and stretched.

"Hey," Megumin said, sniffling, "You were out here for the frog slaying quest right?"

"Yeah," Kazuma answered as they made their way down the hill.

"I'm part of your party now so why don't we combine kills? I've already taken three plus the two you killed. Theres' our five"

"Well, if you're fine with it. But what's with that anyway? Why are you soloing with such a handicap?"

"No party will take me anymore. I was out of money and desperate. So I wander the hills all day waiting for a frog to be out alone before casting explosion on it."

"That's really dangerous," Kazuma scolded her, "What if there was a frog that you didn't notice? It took you half an hour before you could barely move"

"I was going to starve to death if I didn't though," Megumin defended herself.

"But lying around for an hour with a fresh kill nearby? Other parties didn't come help you?"

Megumin shook her head. "Everybody in town knows me already," she said, downcast, "I prayed no one would find me cause if they did they would just make fun of me and claim the kill as theirs."

"That's terrible!" Aqua chimed in, "Who are they? I'll give them a piece of my mind!"

"Aqua..." Kazuma would have smacked her if he wasn't holding onto their new ally, "She said _everybody_ in town knows her, idiot"

"Oh" Aqua frowned, "don't call me an idiot you shut-in perv!"

Megumin laughed. What was normal for the two was new and amusing for her, "I wish I had friends I could talk like that to"

"Well, you do now," Kazuma replied, "Just say what's on your mind. We won't judge you."

She smiled, "Thank you."

"Wait a second, Kazuma" Aqua stopped him.

"What?"

"Where are we going? Which way is town?!"

"Ah..." Kazuma let out a sigh.

"It's actually that way," Megumin pointed behind them.

"I see..." He said embarrassed.

He turned around and led the girls back to town under the moonlight.

* * *

 **Well how about that?**

 **One of the few things that I had planned out from the beginning was to always try to have a banter/argument going on between Kazuma and someone else. It's mostly minor things, the dumb things all friends argue about and get heated up over but ultimately don't care about, in some cases it even brings friendships closer by giving them a new memory to laugh at. Basically, t** **hey're all there because they want to adventure since that's where they'll get the most fill to satiate their problems.** **I wanted the girls to be relatively normal to _talk_ to and then, there will be situations with exceptions of course, let their true selves show while on quests. Since the majority of the quests won't be life threatening, a few won't even have fights, the plan was for them to let loose while they were out and about. Megumin can't exactly level the town square just because she wants to blow stuff up and, with Kazuma slightly less abusive to his slightly more useful companions, Darkness doesn't have anything to throw herself at. At least that's how it is when they first meet... wink, wink, harem story. **

**As for Kazuma, I know it's a bit cliché to have him worry about the girl and all. But I felt like it was right to do so here. Remember that he's a 16 year old teenager and barely goes out to interact with people. In canon, he even stopped going to school. Which is why in my fanfic, he did go to school but was just a recluse. I think how well he's taking it is still ridiculous considering he was such a shut-in. Anyway, I'm just thinking about all the insecurities and 'worst case scenario' mindsets that a lot of teenagers have. Imagining that you're either gonna mess it up right away so badly that she ends up hating you or thinking you're reading too into things and she doesn't actually like you, the things like that.**

 **Thank you for reading and for all your support!**

 **There was actually supposed to be a longer conversation between Kazuma and Aqua before they went to bed. But I felt like Aqua opening herself up to the level that I did felt too soon both in the story and for her. So I cut most of that part out to be pasted and edited into a later part and just kept enough for them to exchange some words. Instead, you get a frog(s) encounter and a wild Megumin appears, yay!**


	6. Wary and Worry

Kazuma yawned as the town appeared on the horizon, feeling the adrenaline of fear wearing off. He was tempted to stop and make camp, but now that they were over the last hill and home was so close, he couldn't bring himself to stop. They made their way onto the road silently, with Aqua mumbling to herself and Megumin asleep on his back. At long last, the fiasco of an adventure was coming to an end.

Ahead of them, two torches loomed by the gate between two parties. One party was made of three adventurers of varying classes, the other party were three knights. The one who seemed to be their leader caught Kazuma's attention.

"Wow, she's got some expensive armor," Kazuma pointed out, waking Megumin. Her outfit was simple yet elegant. Even from this distance, in the torchlight, he could tell it was sturdy armor. She looked like a formidable ally, or opponent to those who dared.

"She looks like she's pretty experienced too," Aqua said. The knight had her sheath around the back of the waist, but even her casual posture as she spoke seemed to be taunting for anything to try attack her.

"Yeah," Megumin added with a yawn, "She looks really mature..."

When they came into earshot, both parties seemed to be arguing about something.

"-right in front of it and missed!" One of the adventurers exclaimed, out of breath and frustrated.

"But I can still-" The knight seemed to be trying to defend herself. She put her hands together, pleading, but was cut off.

"No! I'm not going to argue about this, I'm sorry, but no." The three left the knights behind.

One of the other knights stepped closer to her, "Lady La-"

She glared at the guard, then shot a look at the nearing party.

They waited for Kazuma and his party to pass before continuing, though the female knight seemed to be staring at them. He shivered, squirming under her gaze and imagining just how bad it must look for a man his age to be walking into town, this late at night with two girls. To make matters worse, the three of them were covered in something or other. The girls in particular were shiny from the torch light reflecting from the toad slime. Kazuma held his breath, hoping she wouldn't say anything.

"Lady _Darkness,_ I beg you, please..." The guards whispered as they walked out of earshot. Kazuma let out a sigh of relief.

"What was all that about?" Aqua whispered.

"Who knows? Who cares. I'm exhausted," Kazuma shrugged it off, not wanting to get involved with anymore trouble.

"What about the reward?"

"Err..." He stopped and stifled another yawn, "Does the guild even have workers this late? Fine, I guess we should check since it's near enough to the bathhouse."

"Right, a bath after would be nice," Megumin agreed.

Kazuma turned down a different road and made for the guildhall through the silent town. There were still a few torches in certain buildings, but not enough to give life to anything. The roads were illuminated mostly by the moonlight and even that was barely enough to guide them. But there was not a chance he would be able to sleep covered in gunk and filth to this degree.

They entered the guildhall and were surprised to be greeted by soft murmurs, a few other parties had just arrived from late night questing as well.

"Ah, welcome back!" Luna greeted them cheerfully, walking by the entrance with a clipboard. Her expression quickly changing to worry as she noticed their condition.

"We're fine, it's not as bad as it seems," Kazuma cut her off with a wave of his hand and a yawn.

"Are you sure? We don't mind giving first aid to adventurers who need it, for free," she pressed on, following them as they walked towards the receptionist counter.

"Yes, just a little exhausted is all," Megumin said as the concern seemed to be directed at her.

"A little is an understatement," Aqua added, grimacing at her slimy body.

"What about you? Working this late, you look beat," Kazuma said as Luna reappeared around the other side of the counter.

She paused before yawning and rubbing her eyes, as if she was just noticing how tired she was herself. Her eyes were dark and baggy and she was slightly slumped over. "Well, evil never rests and neither do adventurers," she joked.

"Are you the only one here?" The three looked around and spotted her colleagues elsewhere in the guild, just as tired as her.

"No, but enough of that for now," She changed the topic and put her hands together over the counter, settling into her usual manner working behind the counter, "What can I help our up and coming new adventurers with tonight? It seems you've found yourself a new friend."

"Ah, right, the quest. We'd like to turn in the quest to kill 5 giant frogs," Kazuma answered.

She nodded, "Hand over your adventurer cards please"

Megumin reached into her pocket with one arm, the other still wrapped around Kazuma's neck, and pulled out her card. Kazuma did the same, their cards showing the number of monsters they've eliminated as proof. Aqua, not having slain any, crossed her arms and grumbled something about being divine and could've done better.

"Everything seems to be in order here," She reached underneath the counter and produced a small bag, "This is your reward, please decide how to split it evenly amongst yourselves. A team will be sent out in the morning to harvest the frogs and clean up."

"Ah- about that," Megumin spoke up.

"Is something the matter?"

"I used a high level explosion magic on them, so three of the corpses aren't actually out there anymore."

"Hmm, I see. Thank you for telling us in advance," Luna nodded, "That will be all for now, please enjoy your baths and have a nice rest."

They gave their thanks in unison and turned to make for the exit. As they approached the door the smell of roasted meat greeted them, followed by a soft rumble. Kazuma and Aqua glanced at the arch wizard, who buried her face into Kazuma's shoulder. Kazuma looked to Aqua, who shrugged in response.

"Guess we should eat something before heading out," Megumin perked up as Kazuma set her down at a table, "We're already here after all."

"Thank you," She muttered almost inaudibly, her face low and obscured by her hat.

Kazuma sighed, opting not to comment and instead dumping the coins out on the table. After counting them he said, "25 thousand. Five per frog it seems." He split the coins, giving a generous fifteen to Megumin and leaving ten to himself and Aqua.

"Is this... my portion?" Megumin asked. Touching the coins with one hand as if to feel of they were really there, and watching the other two.

Kazuma nodded, "You did already kill three frogs after all, I figure since you did most of the work you deserve your fair share. I killed two but Aqua's going to complain if she doesn't get anything-"

" _Five thousand_ is all we get for all this? That's no more than we make in construction!" Aqua suddenly exclaimed, she began to ramble on about being underappreciated.

Kazuma sighed, "Just ignore her, you worked hard, you deserve a bigger share."

Megumin looked down again, hiding under her large hat and mumbling something neither of them could hear.

Unsure how to respond, the three just waited for something else to happen.

"Welcome, welcome!" A waitress, to Kazuma's relief, interrupted the atmosphere before the uncomfortable atmosphere could settle, "Are you all ready?" She seemed to ignore their current state. A sign of professionalism or are battered, dirty adventurers eating before bathing that common?

"Yeah, I guess so," Kazuma said.

Aqua ordered first, eager to spend her not-so-hard earned eris right away, in fact she ordered enough food to blow hers _and_ Kazuma's share of the reward.

"Hey! What do you think you're buying! That's more than you can afford! Scratch that, that's more than the three of us can eat!"

"Oh relax, you owe me for having to eat nothing but bread and river water for the past two days," Aqua replied.

"It was _your_ idea to go out before we had saved up money for proper equipment, i'm still in a track suit over here," Kazuma argued, pointing a thumb at himself to emphasize his point.

"It's fine, you still have enough to pay our rent, right?" Aqua said nonchalantly, dismissing his concerns.

"This is the _exact_ amount left to pay our rent, we can't save anything from this!"

Their shouts ceased, interrupted by laughter and they looked to the other side of the table. Megumin held a smile while watching their exchange, finally letting out a laugh at the two. "I'm sorry," She said, "It's just- It's a miracle that you two are together with the way you argue."

"Uh-" Kazuma made to correct her.

"Well, I guess that's what it means to trust your party, right? No matter what happens, no matter what you do to each other, it's never enough for them to give up on you," Her cheerful voice grew weaker with every word, cracking as if on the verge of tears.

"Megumin?" Kazuma called out her name softly.

"I'll try my hardest with you, I promise," Was all the arch wizard said. She wiped her face and gave her best smile.

"And we're grateful to have you!" Aqua piped up in an over exaggerated manner.

Kazuma nodded, "Right, don't push yourself or worry about not doing enough. Aqua and I are pretty useless by ourselves so having you with us is a real relief."

"Yeah we are pretty- Hey! Why are you lumping me in with you?"

"Because you didn't do anything but run around earlier!" He cleared his throat, "Anyway, it's not like we'll be doing any especially hard quests so I'm sure you'll be more than useful. More useful than Aqua anyway."

"That time you only mentioned _me_!" Kazuma smirked at the exasperation of the goddess.

Their food arrived and they ate quickly, filling themselves up on fried frog and vegetables.

"That aside, can you tell us more about why you were out there? Alone and hunting in such a dangerous way," Kazuma continued.

"I was hungry and desperate. If I didn't die to a frog I would've died to starvation anyway," The crimson demon greedily ate her portions, taking more from the serving tray as she spoke.

"When was the last time you ate?" Aqua asked, worried about the poor girl more than proving Kazuma wrong about all the food.

"I ate an apple... maybe two days ago? When I started the quest. It was from one of the apple trees at a farm and, needless to say, the farmer was pretty upset about that"

"Just a single apple?" Aqua stared, upset and horrified when a nod confirmed her question, "What about a full meal?"

There was a short pause. Megumin finished chewing, wiping crumbs off her chin, and frowned. "Five days? Technically six as it is currently early morning."

"And you were casting explosion magic of that size while starving?" Kazuma and Aqua both stopped their meal.

Megumin silently nodded and continued hers. "It is the only magic that I know, after all." She seemed upset at mentioning her one skill, shying away from their gazes.

"It's more than enough for us," Kazuma encouraged her.

"Yeah, now we have two advanced classes in our party, monsters be damned!" Aqua cheered.

"You'll get stronger eventually, right? You'll gain more exp and mana and soon enough you'll be firing off more explosions than you can count."

Megumin nodded, though there still seemed to be a faint gleam of disbelief in her eyes.

"Do you have a place to stay tonight?"

"Hmm?," She grinned and flashed her hand over her face, "I am a crimson demon, I need not a place to rest for I go wherever the wind takes-"

Kazuma interrupted her with a smack on the head, "Just say no."

Megumin replied with a soft moan, reaching underneath her large hat to rub her head. She murmured softly, "No."

He glanced to Aqua, hoping to hear her opinion on the matter, and sighed. She was smirking in her teasing way and held eye contact, practically warning him of what was about to happen. He glared at her in return, anticipating the worst.

"I don't know what you're thinking right now, but you better not say anything stupid."

"I'll head to the bath first," Megumin excused herself from the table, not wanting to be caught in the aftermath of whatever would happen.

Aqua feigned offense and scoffed, "Now Kazuma," her voice was loud enough to echo throughout the whispering dining room, "What do you mean? I would _never_ imply that you are suggesting to _sleep_ with such a young, energetic, and vulnerable little girl _and_ with me at the same time!"

"I'll have you know, I'm turning 14 in a few months," Megumin stated as she made her way to the door, but her comment went ignored.

The blood drained from his face. "Aqua! Phrasing! Phrasing!" He hissed, begging her to quiet down as they gathered the attention of everybody in the guildhall.

"That aside, what's your plan to help our dear party member?" Aqua smiled innocently.

The guildhall was dead silent, even the waitresses and receptionists had stopped. No matter what volume he spoke, unless he leaned right into her ear to whisper, some of the guild would hear. Sweat formed on his forehead as the mere seconds that passed felt like whole minutes.

 _'Watch what you say or this is the end for you'_ Aqua's expression wordlessly taunted him.

"W-well," He quickly scanned the room, a few of the male adventurers were grinning and holding back their laughter while the females had raised brows, waiting for his response, "The first night is free at the stables right? I'm sure the old man has another empty stall. I could spend the night in my own and you can go with Megumin into hers." He smiled weakly.

Aqua laughed as the adventurers slowly went back to their own business, shaking their heads and having a laugh of their own, "Good quick thinking."

"You shut up!" He shouted, grabbing the final frog leg off his plate, "I swear, I almost had a heart attack and died again."

"Wouldn't be the first time-"

"I died of something so stupid, yeah, yeah," He muttered.

When they finished, they grabbed their things and left. Waving goodbye to Luna and the other employees working themselves to the bone.

"But you know, is this really ok?" Aqua asked when they were outside, out of earshot of everybody else.

"What do you mean?"

"To take Megumin in. She's strong, without a doubt, that explosion power is some next level stuff. I'd guess that at her age, she's maybe around level 5? 6 if she's been lucky. Not only that, but you get a starting bonus of a few points when you change into an advanced class, at least I did. All that solely into her explosions. But again, she can only use it once a day. Not to mention fighting in cramped areas or overwhelming numbers of monsters?"

"When did you become so critical about these things?"

"Because your life is at stake here," Aqua said intensely.

Kazuma remained as silent as the town around them. Though the sun was already starting to rise, and people would be starting their days soon enough.

"I'm a goddess. If I die then it's a reincarnation back to the afterlife for me. But it's not instant. I won't be the one to guide you if you die here. I gave you a choice and you took it. As a goddess, I don't have the opportunity to make friends with mortals and you've given me that chance so I just-" She gripped his sleeve without breaking stride, walking directly next him, "-want to make sure you're going to be fine. Whatever we might become, you're my friend and I'd rather not lose the first one I made so soon. I know you want to be a hero and all, but you can't kill the demon king if you die."

He grabbed her hand, squeezing it lightly before blushing and letting go. "I get it," He replied, "I know what it's like to worry about losing someone. But..." He frowned and rubbed the back of his head, struggling to convey his feelings into words, "But I also know what it's like to feel so alone and abandoned. The feeling that no one is there to help. Did you notice the look in her eyes?"

Aqua shook her head, "No. What about them?"

"She's waiting for us to abandon her. She's already ready to be left behind despite us just taking her in. No other party in town is willing to take her and who knows how long it'll be before another party comes? On top of that another party that is even willing to accept her. I mean, aren't you a goddess? Aren't you supposed to be helping people?" He asked softly.

"I'm still a woman too, you know," Aqua mumbled.

"Eh- What was that?" His head snapped to his side, "Are you jealous? Over a 13 year old?!"

"No!" She quickly denied, pouting with crossed arms.

Kazuma broke out laughing, "And here I thought you were actually upset about something serious."

"I was!" She defended herself, "I meant all that stuff that I said too"

" _'too'?_ So you were jealous!" Kazuma gripped his sides, ecstatic that Aqua was on the receiving end of the embarrassment. Tears formed in his eyes as he struggled to breath.

"Kazuma!" She whined, shoving him hard. With their difference in stats, she almost sent him flying.

"Ok, Ok, I'm sorry," He said trying to control himself. He took some deep breaths in between and cleared his throat, "But in her case, it's hard to explain. Just the stuff that I've seen and been through I guess. It would feel wrong to just abandon her- not as a hero but for my own reasons."

Aqua nodded, "I get it. Like you said, I'm supposed to be helping people as a goddess. I'm not giving you a hard time for wanting to be a good person. I just want to make sure you know where things could be headed."

"Well, if you put it like that. The way I see it, we're at risk of death regardless of whether or not we take her in. You said it yourself, she's one hell of a firecracker, it's better to have that damage than not, right? If something is so big that it can withstand her explosion or if the monsters are so many that she can't get them all, then we'd still be dead with or without her, right?"

"Fair enough. But my last words to you will be 'I told you so' if we die."

"Sure, and once we defeat the demon king and you're granting my wish, those will be my words to you." They exchanged a lighthearted laugh before walking into their respective bathhouses.

Kazuma stripped off his clothes, soaking them in a bucket before he rinsed himself off, glad to be rid of all the mud and slimy juices trailing down his back, and slipped into the bath.

"Man, I'm so tired," He let out a long yawn and a satisfied groan. Sinking into the water, he felt the stress of the previous days beginning to wash away. He blinked and felt that his eyelids were unusually heavy. Finally succumbing to fatigue, he leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

"You'd be a monster not to be, with the way those two girls looked," A rather mature, yet feminine voice echoed through the room.

Kazuma's eyes shot open, staring at the newcomer who was very clearly a woman, "What- wait- I e-explain that, but- but miss, this- men's- b-b-" He stuttered out a mess of a statement as she soaked into the bath at the opposite side.

With a sigh, she tightened the towel around her and stretched, "Oh man, _public baths_ , what an experience."

"Miss! Please!" Kazuma covered himself with his hands, out of reach from a towel. What's a virgin shutin to do in a situation like this? Alone in the bath with a beautiful, blonde, older lady who had all the confidence in the world. His brain began to overload, attempting to decide what to so next and stuck somewhere between run away and slam his head against the wall until he passes out.

She glanced in his direction and he froze. "Do you know why I'm here?"

"I- I can ex- -plain ab-about the girls," She was obviously here to give him a stern scolding with the way she greeted him, why else would a knight enter the men's bath? At least they were alone with no one to hear anything out of context.

"Oh?" She grinned with an uncomfortable level of interest, "Please do."

"W-well, we were uhh, tired and outside of town- obviously outside of town with no witnesses-" He cringed, regretting his extra comment as her grin widened, "And- and then frogs- the frogs chased us into- a mud pit and then- explosion magic and- and slipping- and running around," The knight's breathing became heavier.

"You mean to say," Her grin disappeared, replaced with an expression that seemed to be disappointment, "That those poor girls were thrown about in a mud pit and then eaten by frogs?"

"Y-yes- b-but-" Kazuma turned away from her, "I- I know that- it sounds like a- r-riculous story-" He looked back to her when he heard the sound of rushing water. Kazuma yelped as the female knight was lunging from her side of the bath to his and before he could even move, was caught in her grasp.

"Wait! Wait! Please I'm telling you it's the truth!" His mind began to breakdown and he closed his eyes. He was tired and just wanted to take a bath before bed but now it seemed like he was about to get murdered.

"If it's the truth..." She spoke, "Then let me join your party."

He slowly opened his eyes to find her staring intensely just inches away. He felt her breath rushing against his skin and couldn't help but feel just a little bit excited about it, despite his situation.

"W-what?"

"As a crusader, I simply can not allow this sort of thing to happen to vulnerable women if I can do something- I mean to _any_ adventurers if I can do something about it!"

 _'Guess I'm just chopped liver, but oh well, I think I can get out of this alive'_

"Uh- Are you sure?"

 _'No you moron! Let her join! Don't question the knight that can kill you with her bare hands! Aqua would never let you hear the end of it! ... Wait, what?'_

What a man he has become, fearing his friends more than the idea of death itself.

"It's just," He cleared his throat, speaking in an apologetic tone, "We're a bunch of rookie adventurers and will probably be a burden to you."

"Oh? You're much more considerate than you seem"

"I'm telling you it was just a mishap with frogs!" He defended.

"Well tell you what, I'm real sturdy with a few more levels than rookies but the truth is," She leaned in close to his ear, pulling him into a sort of hug like grip as he shuddered, "I can't hit anything."

"... Eh?"

She shied away, "Yes, it's true. Most parties consider me trouble but I'm probably the toughest knight around this town. I, Darkness, have spent all my points have gone into resistances and other defense passives. Though I'm not really a high level, I'm strong enough to tank multiple hits from the strongest monsters around town. I can't hit anything with my sword but a tank is a tank, right? That's what the other parties tell me anyway."

A voice echoed in the back of his mind from their meeting at the gate, "What about that party earlier-"

"Ah, well," she quickly cut him off, "They were a new party and didn't know about me yet. They said they wanted a 'full knightly experience' and I thought they meant heroic theatrics included. At our first skirmish, I just yelled, 'Stand back and let me handle this' to which I was quickly overwhelmed and pummeled by monsters. Though they were impressed by my defense, they were pretty annoyed by having to waste so much mp and potions to dig me out and patch me up."

"And you couldn't hit any of them while they were swarming you?"

"Not really, but he was complaining about another skirmish. On our way home. A giant toad had appeared while everybody was burnt out. I told them they could rely on me and I charged the beast. Well, let's just say that didn't go as planned."

"Right... So what does any of that have to do with us?"

"You are rookie adventurers who happen to meet unfortunate circumstances are you not? I wish to be there to aid you!"

"That was just our first quest actually"

"Even better! The more you will have to rely on me!" Her grip tightened and he wheezed.

With a quiet apology she released him and he sat back into the bath. "Are you sure? I'd feel bad letting you take all that damage by yourself."

"Not a problem at all, in fact that's exactly what I want!" Her calm and collected persona had disappeared, her heavy breathing echoing through the quiet room. Earlier, the fear and shock had distorted his thoughts, leaving him to believe she was upset or even angry. But up close, especially with her rosy cheeks, it was clear that she was excited.

"Miss?"

"It is my duty as a knight to be battered on the frontline. My duty as a crusader to face the demon lord! My duty as a woman, no- my _fate_ as a female knight to be captured and endlessly tortured by the hands of those demons! Oh the things they would do to me! _Noo~_ not there!" She hugged herself and shivered in ecstasy.

Kazuma took a step back, a mixture of shock and disgust on his face, Though truth be told there was a little bit of sickening curiosity to it. "Miss! Please control yourself! What would happen if someone heard us from the outside?!"

She was completely lost in her own fantasy world, rocking side to side as she rambled on, "Oh, you can take my body but you will never take my spirit!"

"Darkness!" He shouted, grabbing her with a violent shake.

"Ah! What! What!" She snapped back to reality and steadied her breathing, "My apologies. I don't know what got into me there."

"Sheesh, and I thought I had enough problem children to deal with," He frowned, "Really, what if someone walks in on us right now? What would they think of me?"

"You don't have to worry about that, I have my guards by the entrance so no one can come in right now."

" _Your_ guards? Who are you!"

"That's not important, so what do you say? Will you let me into your party?"

He sighed. "I don't know." His response seemed to unsettle her, so he continued, "I'm tired. I mean, _really_ tired and I need some rest. Will you let me think it over?"

"Oh... Of course. Please, take your time." She gave a small bow.

"Thank you, I'll talk it over with my party and we'll meet you at the guildhall tonight ok?"

"Of course."

With one more yawn he stood up and waded over to the edge of the bath. As he lifted one foot out of the tub, his eyes felt unusually heavy and his head began to spin. He took a single step out and slipped, falling backwards. But the bath, as most baths are, was very shallow and his momentum carried him through the water. His head slammed into the stone floor, stunning him.

There was a muffled shout as he felt a pair of hands cut through the water to grab him. But the darkness was already enveloping him.

Well, at least he was getting the sleep he was looking for.

* * *

 **I thought it'd be interesting to have Aqua be the jealous/clingy type, what do you think? If not... Well, people can grow out of that.**

 **As for her powers, I decided to drag away all of her abilities early on because I don't want them to be in such a severe debt by the end of the Beldia arc as they will need to focus on something else- my own little subplot for them. While the debt wouldn't interfere with the subplot I just thought I should focus on one thing at a time. All the characters they meet will still be introduced along the way but that's then. A** **lso cause it gives Aqua an actual reason to be useless and motivation to try harder later, when she does get her abilities, party tricks and all.**

 **Darkness having guards is only temporary but you know with her background I feel like she would have them for now, not her choice of course. I also want to make it clear Darkness is not as sturdy as in the anime/LN (for the time being, same as Aqua), just so she has a _little_ _bit_ of restraint and doesn't charge into everything with ease. I know it's her whole thing but there's a different between 'unbearable pain and traumatic humiliation' and 'dead'. I said I don't want to change them too much, so basically she knows if she gets stuck getting beaten she can't protect her fellow party members.**

 **Kazuma is tired and just trying to make it to bed. _Was_ trying anyway. The fatigue finally got to him and threw him off his balance.**

 **Once again thanks for reading and for all the support!**


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